passing a variable to a Bean's method

[Charessa Reilly]

I have these two methods in a Bean:

public void testQ() {
		InquireRecord irec = new InquireRecord();
		String qs="INSERT INTO inquiries (submitter) VALUES ('Monkey Man')";
		irec.sendToDb(qs);
	}
	
	public void sendToDb(String queryString){
		try {
			Class.forName("sun.jdbc.odbc.JdbcOdbcDriver");
			String filename = "C:/Development/tomcat/webapps/inquire/inquire.mdb";
			String database = "jdbc:odbc:Driver={Microsoft Access Driver (*.mdb)};DBQ=";
			database+= filename.trim() + ";DriverID=22;READONLY=true}";
			Connection con = DriverManager.getConnection( database ,"","");
			Statement s = con.createStatement();
			s.execute (queryString);
			con.close();
		}
		catch (Throwable e) {
			System.out.println(e);
		}
	}

of I call the first method from inside eclipse, it writes a new record in the database and all is well.

If I try to call the method from inside a jsp file, thusly:

<c:set var="queryString" value="INSERT INTO inquiries (submitter) VALUES ('Monkey Man')" />
<% iRecord.sendToDb("!{queryString}"); %>

I get no errors, but the connection to the database never closes and the new record never gets written.

I feel so newb about this. I keep asking questions that probably make me look foolish.

[Bear Bibeault]

You're mixing JSTL and scriptlets?

[Charessa Reilly]

so.. I take it that's a no no?

[Bear Bibeault]

Yes. JSTL and EL are meant to replace scriptlets and they are not designed to work together. Choose either to use discredited scriptlets or JSTL/EL, but not both. That's just a big ol' mess.

[Charessa Reilly]

aight.

So my understanding then is my other real option is to make a custom tag?

[Bear Bibeault]

That's one of many approaches. There are also custom EL functions, and other means. Which to choose depends upon the scenario.

But the first thing to always do is to ponder whether it's something that should have been handled in the controller rather than waiting until you get to the JSP.