Scriptlet to JSTL

[Dan Parsons]

I have the following in Tomcat 6.1.20 working in my JSP and now want to eliminate the Scriptlet and use JSTL:

jsp:useBean id="dataBean" class="beanPackage.DataBean" scope="request" />

<%= dataBean.getMessage("cityField") %>

My attempt didnt work because it doesnt like my JSTL part:

jsp:useBean id="dataBean" class="beanPackage.DataBean" scope="request" />

${dataBean.getMessage("cityField")}

Please advise how I can get this to work using JSTL instead of Scriptlet.

[Bear Bibeault]

This has nothing to do with the JSTL -- this is an EL question.

And the answer is that the EL can't call general methods by design -- it is intended to work only with bean properties. Method calls with parameters are not valid bean properties and hence cannot be invoked.

Beans should be designed as beans, and not be general classes masquerading as beans.

If you really need to call a general method, you can explore defining custom tags or EL functions.

[Dan Parsons]

Bear Bibeault wrote:This has nothing to do with the JSTL -- this is an EL question.

And the answer is that the EL can't call general methods by design -- it is intended to work only with bean properties. Method calls with parameters are not valid bean properties and hence cannot be invoked.

Beans should be designed as beans, and not be general classes masquerading as beans.

If you really need to call a general method, you can explore defining custom tags or EL functions.

Thanks, I will google and read on how to define custom tag or EL function and decide which is best for my situation.

[Bear Bibeault]

Or, rather than simply do a line-by-line scriptlet-->EL/JSTL conversion, sit back and decide how to refactor the page not to need to do such things in the first place.

[pooja jain]

dont fall in trap.

use scriptlet if you are comfirtable with it. i never saw a pure graphic designer maintaining a jsp. even if he is doing, el or jstl is not going to be understood by him anyway.

[avi sinha]

pooja jain wrote:dont fall in trap.

use scriptlet if you are comfirtable with it. i never saw a pure graphic designer maintaining a jsp. even if he is doing, el or jstl is not going to be understood by him anyway.

its not a trap. it doesn't matter whether you have seen a graphic designer maintaining a jsp or not. may be one day a jsp/el programmer will have to maintain it.

and keep in mind scripting inside a jsp page is deprecated so we should not use scripting inside a jsp.

it will be a lame excuse that you are not comfortable with these.just try to figure it out. if you can learn java you can learn it easily.

avi sinha

[pooja jain]

avi sinha wrote:

and keep in mind scripting inside a jsp page is deprecated so we should not use scripting inside a jsp.

any supporting url???

[avi sinha]

sorry pooja i didn't understand ...
what does it mean "supporting url".

[pooja jain]

avi sinha wrote:sorry pooja i didn't understand ...
what does it mean "supporting url".

any url which says that scriptlet is depricated.

[avi sinha]

Read This

avi sinha

[pooja jain]

avi sinha wrote:Read This

avi sinha

parden me but i didn't find any such URL in that thread either.

[avi sinha]

pooja jain wrote:

avi sinha wrote:Read This

avi sinha

parden me but i didn't find any such URL in that thread either.

well my mistake :

scriptlet is not deprecated, only its use is not recommended.

avi sinha

[pooja jain]

its ok avi.

that's not the point anyway.

the point is, it sounds good on ear that jsp shouldn't have the scriptlets but i am in an opinion that use jsp for presentation but things like iterating list, getting things form request, session, iterating any custom object etc can be done in scriptlet if you are comfirtable with it.

i dont buy this argument that scriptlet makes hard to read jsp.

have fun.

[avi sinha]

pooja jain wrote:its ok avi.

that's not the point anyway.

the point is, it sounds good on ear that jsp shouldn't have the scriptlets but i am in an opinion that use jsp for presentation but things like iterating list, getting things form request, session, iterating any custom object etc can be done in scriptlet if you are comfortable with it.

have fun.

ya of course it can be done using scripting but using actions and el is even better and easier in my opinion.

avi sinha

[Bear Bibeault]

You can write JSPs like it's 2001 with scriptlets, or you can move to modern accepted best practices and move up to JSTL/EL. No one can make you write good code. The choice is yours.