<jsp:useBean Body Execution Doubt

[Sai Surya]

Dear All,

Please take a look at the following code.

 public class Foo {
private String name;
public String getName() {
return name;
}
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
System.out.println("Name set");
}
public Foo() {
System.out.println("In the foo constructor");
}
} 

 <jsp:useBean id="foo" class="com.learning.to.Foo"/>
<jsp:setProperty name="foo" property="name" value="HelloWorld!"/>
Name is: <jsp:getProperty name="foo" property="name"/> 

Since jsp use bean doesn't have a body, the jsp should not set the name property to the bean.
It just have to create an empty bean. However, when I run the code, I am surprised to see that
the name attribute has been set by calling Foo.setName().

Is my understanding wrong?

[Sai Surya]

Sorry! I understood how it works after re-reading the section in HFSJ.

<jsp:setProperty always sets value if outside ><jsp:useBean. If inside ><jsp:useBean ...></jsp:useBean> the body invocation is conditional dependeng on whether bean exists in any of the scopes.

[Niteen Patil]

Yes, you are correct. The body of the bean is executed conditionally.If the bean object doesn't exist the bean will be created in the given scope and the body is executed.
If the bean exists in the given scope the body will not be executed.