Null request parameter from Select/Option element

I have successfully coded almost exactly the same thing and have it working; but I've been looking at this one several hours and just cannot determine my mistake or lack of understanding.

In the JSP, I have:

PAPERTITLE is the name of the column in the database and does display correctly in the JSP so I know the data is being retrieved correctly from the database.

The value is just not getting to the servlet through the Request object or so it seems.

This is how I ask for the value from the Select /Option element in the servlet:

I apologize for using old fashioned scriplets. I've just recently added logging to this project and version control. JSTL and EL are on my list; but here is only so much time in the day.

Thanks ; I hope someone can see what I am obviously overlooking. I keep thinking I understand how all this works; but if I did, it would work.

This is how I ask for the value from the Select /Option element in the servlet:

String paperTitle = req.getParameter("paper");

This is Correct. and Please tell the error what you get ? what you get the value for paperTitle in servlet. Simply saying "not working " wont help us to answare .

Note: see the view source of your jsp

Seems like you are setting a attribute of type ResultSet somewhere? You could have use some other data structure instead

.

Are you submitting from within the <form> tag in the jsp?

The user is selecting the value within a jsp form tag and then using a Submit button. So I would assume, as in my other working example, that this would also work; but the value is null in the servlet submitted to from the Action tag of the form.

The ResultSet if from a database query in a servlet. The values are in the ResultSet as they are displayed in the Select/Option element of the jsp. The selected value is not available after the Submit button sends the form to the next servlet.

How the <select> element gets built is completely moot.

Inspect the HTML that's sent to the browser to make sure that it's valid and that the elements are well-formed. Also be sure that the select element is a descendant of the form which is being submitted.

Here's the complete html for the jsp submitting to the servlet; when the servlet asks for the value from the select element, it is null.

!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">

<html>

    <head>
        <title>File Download</title>
        <link href="styles/PaperStyle.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css">
    </head>
    
    
    <body bgcolor="white">

<center>
            <h1>  Papers  Available for Download </h1>
            <form action  = "ProcessPaper"
                  method  = "post"
                  enctype = "multipart/form-data" 
             >
              
           	   <h3> Download a  Paper</h3>
                                                             
                     <select name = "paper" size = "5" >
                          
                                <option value='BeKind.doc' > 
                                               BeKind.doc 
                                </option>

<option value='MAYBE.doc' > 
                                               MAYBE.doc 
                                </option>
                          
                                <option value='ClayBalls.doc' > 
                                               ClayBalls.doc 
                                </option>
                          
                                <option value='Quotes.doc' > 
                                               Quotes.doc 
                                </option>
                          
                                <option value='GodSendMe.doc' > 
                                               GodSendMe.doc 
                                </option>
                          
                                <option value='CDF-Meditation.doc' > 
                                               CDF-Meditation.doc 
                                </option>

</select>

Here's the servlet request for the value:

remove this from your form attribute and then try

Why the multi-part form? That will prevent normal parsing of the request.

I thought I had to use the multi-part form parameter when working with files; but I realize now I'm not doing that yet in this form.
I'm just using the name of the file at this point. Thanks so much for taking such a close look at the problem.

You will only need a multi-part form when doing a file upload. Any other form should not change the default enctype.

(And when/if you get to file uploading, you'll need to parse the request yourself -- or use a 3rd party tool to do it. See the FAQs.)

What does the multipart form parameter actually do to the envelope? I felt like this had to be something I didn't know about the big picture. So glad we kept at it until I did understand it. I will be learning JSTL and El, but I think this has been a valuable learning experience also.