all i want to do is assign a string

init.sls

config_my_site:
  file.managed:
    - name: /etc/apache2/sites-available/my-site-8181
    - template: jinja
    - source: salt://animate-web-2/templates/my-site-8181-virtual.tmpl
    [ something else must go here ]
    - watch_in:
      - service: apache2

the pillar

web_fronts:
  here.foo.com:
    app-server: this.tomcat.int
    app-port: 8080
  there.foo.com:
    app-server: that.tomcat.int
    app-port: 8080

the template, trimmed

[...]
         ProxyRequests off
         ProxyPreserveHost on
         ProxyPass /api http://{{ app-server }}:{{ app-port }}/animateapi
         oroxyPassReverseCookieDomain /api http://{{ app-server }}:{{ app-port }}/$
         ProxyPassReverseCookiePath /animateapi /api
[...]