LinkedHashMap Iteration problems

[Chris Cornelius]

Hello,

I have a LinkedHashMap to hold all of the US States and their abbreviations.
My problem is that I want to access them from a JSP to iterate through in a drop down list but I keep getting the following error:

javax.servlet.jsp.JspTagException: Don't know how to iterate over supplied "items"

Here is a snippet of the LinkedHashMap Code:

package com.rxamerica.enrollment.util;
 
import java.util.LinkedHashMap;
import java.util.Map;
 
public class StateMap
{
/**
 * static map of states
 */
public static Map stateMap;
static
{
stateMap = new LinkedHashMap();
stateMap.put("AL","Alabama");
stateMap.put("AK","Alaska");
}
}

Here is a snippet of the JSP Code:

<td>
<%-- Now get the LinkedHashMap for the state values --%>
<jsp:useBean id="map" class="com.rxamerica.enrollment.util.StateMap" scope="page" />
<font size="1">State: (2f.)</font>
<select tabindex="15" name="State" >
<option value=" ">Select State</option>
<c:forEach items="${map}" var="item">
<option value="${item.key}" <c:if test='${Applicant.primaryContact.state eq item.key}'>selected</c:if>>
<c:out value='${item.value}'/>
</option>
</c:forEach>
</select>
</td>

Thanks in advance for your help!

Chris Cornelius

[Bear Bibeault]

You are trying to iterate over StateMap which

 public class StateMap { 

is not a collection.

If it's the underlying public static map instance you want to iterate over, you must reference it, not the containing class.

[Chris Cornelius]

Thanks Bear,

I have made the changes but now get this error:

javax.servlet.jsp.JspException: An error occurred while evaluating custom action attribute "items" with value "${ListOfStates.stateMap}": Unable to find a value for "stateMap" in object of class "com.rxamerica.enrollment.util.StateMap" using operator "." (null)

Here are the changes:

<td>
<%-- Now get the LinkedHashMap for the state values --%>
<jsp:useBean id="ListOfStates" class="com.rxamerica.enrollment.util.StateMap" scope="page" />
<font size="1">State: (2f.)</font>
<select tabindex="15" name="State" >
<option value=" ">Select State</option>
<c:forEach items="${ListOfStates.stateMap}" var="item">
<option value="${item.key}" <c:if test='${Applicant.primaryContact.state eq item.key}'>selected</c:if>>
<c:out value='${item.value}'/>
</option>
</c:forEach>
</select>
</td>

What am I missing?

Chris

[Bear Bibeault]

You need to study up on the EL a bit. You are trying to access a static field of the class. The EL can only access properties of classes that are established as scoped variables.

In other words. you need to provide a property accessor (getter) for the collection element.
[ December 01, 2005: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]

[Chris Cornelius]

Will do, thanks!

Chris