EL Questions

[Flavio Nobili]

Hi all,

I was prepared for the SCWCD 1.3 exam. But, I've realized that there is a SCWCD 1.4. So I'm studing some new topics like EL and JSTL.

One thing I don't understan is: why (or when) should I use EL instead of JSP expressions?
Doesn't the following code do the same thing??

   <c:if test="${product.value > 0}">
 
   <c:if test="<%= product.getValue() > 0 %>">

Thanks
[ July 29, 2004: Message edited by: Fl�vio Fran�a ]

[Adrian Pang]

In my opinion (which might not be right), EL is much "simplified" because it hides ugly details from you. In your example, product can be a bean, or it can be a map... it can reside in page, request, session or application scope; all these have to be handled if you are using a JSP expression.

[Chengwei Lee]

The whole idea was to minimise the usage of scriplets on the JSP. That way, a non-Java guy could easily learn how to use JSTL & custom tags to author a JSP without needing to know deeply into Java.