jasper compiler problem

[Chris Davies]

hi
i'm working with an application called webtop and am getting the following error message from the proceeding code
org.apache.jasper.compiler.ParseException: /WEB-INF/jsp/ws/bill2/user/web1/record.jsp(119,45) Attribute TIB has no value

 <webtop:if condition="<%= bean.getString("TIB") == Null %>
<webtop:then>
         <tr><td>   </td></tr>
            <tr valign="top">
            <td bgcolor="#d7e2f5" align="left"><strong>Book details:<br> </strong></td></tr>
                <webtop:columns id="column" name="bean" positions="11,8,12,14,15">
            <tr valign="top">
             <td align="right"><strong><%= column.getColumnLabel() %>: </strong></td>
             <td><%= column.getString() %></td>
            </tr>
           </webtop:columns> </webtop:then>
<webtop:else>
         <tr><td>   </td></tr>
            <tr valign="top">
            <td bgcolor="#d7e2f5" align="left"><strong>Journal / Article:<br> </strong></td></tr>
                <webtop:columns id="column" name="bean" positions="2,19,16,18,17,20,21,22,23,24">
            <tr valign="top">
             <td align="right"><strong><%= column.getColumnLabel() %>: </strong></td>
             <td><%= column.getString() %></td>
            </tr>
           </webtop:columns>
        </webtop:else>
</webtop:if> 

it seems a simple synax error but i cant figure what it is ? is that the correct syntax to query if a string is null ? also is the syntax for ("TIB") correct ? the .getString method is defined in the api as java.lang.String ?
cheers
chris

[Greg T Robertson]

<webtop:if condition="<%= bean.getString("TIB") == Null %>

I'm pretty sure this needs to be
<webtop:if condition="<%= bean.getString("TIB") == null" %>
note the ending quote and that null is lower cased

[Chris Davies]

thanks but i'm still getting the following error
org.apache.jasper.compiler.ParseException: /WEB-INF/jsp/ws/bill2/user/web1/record.jsp(119,45) Attribute TIB has no value
TIB is the name of the column field - could it be this ? for exmple if the field was journal would bean.getString("journal") be valid if it was java.lang.string ?
cheers
chris

[Greg T Robertson]

boy did i screw that up. it should be
<webtop:if condition="<%= bean.getString("TIB") == null %>" >
as far as the bean.getString i'm not sure of. but jasper only reports compilation errors not runtime which i would have to believe the error with TIB would be
edited to remove extraneous quote
[ April 22, 2004: Message edited by: Greg T Robertson ]

[Chris Davies]

it just isn't playing
i'm still gettign the same error.
a few lines aboove the i've got eh following bean declared. this doesn't havea a method named getString nor does it inherit it. its a method of a bean named column, but still can't see why this would give the error message.

 <webtop:record id="record" name="bean" ^M
               type="com.opentext.basis.jdbc.BasisResultSet">^M 

cheers
chris

[Dirk Schreckmann]

Moving this to the JSP forum...

[Bear Bibeault]

I have no idea what 'webtop' is or does. But I do have two points:
1) Your best bet for diagnosing parse failures in a JSP is to take a look at the Java file for the servlet that the container generates on behalf of the JSP. For Tomcat, you'll find these in the folder tree under $CATALINE_HOME/work.
2) If the purpose of webtop is to provide conditional compilation in a JSP, you'd be better off switching to the standardized JSTL. Then you won't get responses like "I have no idea what 'webtop' is or does".

[Jeroen Wenting]

That line would likely never work as JSP attributes are determined at compile time and you're giving it a runtime value.
You'd need to set the parameter you're passing into the pageContext as a named attribute and pass that name instead to the tag.
Something like (mind, this may not work but should get you underway)

<%
  pageContext.setAttribute("tib", new Boolean(bean.getString("TIB")==true));
%>
<webtop:if condition="$tib" >