Help with an c:forEach and html:links

[Gregg Bolinger]

I am trying to iterate over an ArrayList of beans and build html:links accordingly with the correct parameters. Here is how I retrieve and build my ArrayList:

ArrayList issues = new ArrayList();
while(rs.next())
{
  Issue issue = new Issue();
  issue.setTicket(rs.getString("ticket"));
  issues.add(issue);
}
request.setAttribute("issues", issues);

Issues has a getter for ticket.

And then in my JSP:

<c:forEach var="item" items="${issues}">
   <li>
   <html:link forward="showIssue" 
                 paramId="ticket" 
                 paramName="${item}" 
                 paramProperty="${item.ticket}" 
                 paramScope="request" target="_blank">
      ${item.ticket}
   </html:link><br/>
</c:forEach>

The error I am getting when forwarded to the JSP is:

Cannot find bean com.intrustbank.anykey.beans.dao.Issue@1d592a in scope request

So am I doing something wrong/stupid here or what? Any help is appreciated.

Thanks.
[ August 11, 2004: Message edited by: Gregg Bolinger ]

[Junilu Lacar]

try not using EL for paramName and paramProperty.

paramName="item"
paramProperty="ticket"

Also, I wouldn't specify paramScope="request" unless you're sure that the bean "item" will be in the request context.
[ August 11, 2004: Message edited by: Junilu Lacar ]

[Gregg Bolinger]

Originally posted by Junilu Lacar:
try not using EL for paramName and paramProperty.

paramName="item"
paramProperty="ticket"

Also, I wouldn't specify paramScope="request" unless you're sure that the bean "item" will be in the request context.

[ August 11, 2004: Message edited by: Junilu Lacar ]

That didn't work either. Now I get:

Cannot find bean item in scope request

Before, when I was using EL, it at least knew I was looking for an Issue object. But now it doesn't event know what item is it seems.

[Gregg Bolinger]

Ok, I think I know why it won't work. I just can't figure out a good way to make it work.

Struts taglibs don't work with JSTL tags when EL is involved. Basically, the html:link tag I am using is looking for my Issue object in some scope rather than looking at the current item pulled by my forEach tag for the Issue object.

Now, what can I do to make this work better? Should I be building list of Issues differently?

[Junilu Lacar]

Originally posted by Gregg Bolinger:
Struts taglibs don't work with JSTL tags when EL is involved.

From the error messages, it seems to be working fine with EL:

paramName="${item}"
paramScope="request"

gives you

"Cannot find bean com.intrustbank.anykey.beans.dao.Issue@1d592a in scope request"

Which indicates that "${item}" is being evaluated to item.toString() which evaluates to com.intrustbank.anykey.beans.dao.Issue@1d592a

Of course, this is not the correct attribute key (there's no attribute "com.intrustbank.anykey.beans.dao.Issue@1d592a" in any context), so the tag won't find anything whereas using paramName="item" gives you the error "Cannot find bean item in scope request"

Which means it's looking for the correct attribute key ("item"). This also tells me that you either left paramScope="request" in the tag or that the html:link tag fails when it can't find "item" after searching the request context. I believe the c:forEach will put the variable in the page Context, not the request context.

If you really think it's a problem with the tag libraries and EL, make sure you are using the EL-aware struts-el.jar

[Gregg Bolinger]

This also tells me that you either left paramScope="request" in the tag

All is well now. I would suspect that if I put paramScope="page" it would have worked as well since, as you said:

I believe the c:forEach will put the variable in the page Context, not the request context.

But I'm not going to worry about it since it is working now. Thanks a million.