Scriptlet to EL

[Joseph Smithern]

I have a web form working great for a long time using Scriptlets and Bean in Tomcat 6.0.20.
Now I would like to eliminate the Scriptlets and use EL instead.
Please advise how I can get the below radio input to work with EL in my JSP. All my attempts are not working.

Bean that worked with the Scriptlet:

public String getCityRadio(String myField)
{
      String myRadio = "";
      if(getCity() != null)
      {
           if(getCity().equals(myField))
           {
                 myRadio = "checked";
           }
      }
      return myRadio;
}

JSP works with Bean and Scriptlets:

<jsp:useBean id="cityBean" class="beanPackage.CityBean" scope="request"  />
Boston <input type="radio" name="city" value="Boston" ><%= cityBean.getCityRadio("Boston") %>>
<br>
Buffalo <input type="radio" name="city" value="Buffalo" ><%= cityBean.getCityRadio("Buffalo") %>>
<br>
Portland <input type="radio" name="city" value="Portland" ><%= cityBean.getCityRadio("Portland") %>>

My attempt to use EL instead of Scriptlet does not work with any of the below attempts. None of my EL attempts show any checked value or the check shows up only at the last radio button only.

//tried this:
.....
Buffalo <input type="radio" name="city" value="Buffalo" ${cityBean.cityRadio["Buffalo"]}>>
Portland <input type="radio" name="city" value="Portland" ${cityBean.cityRadio["Portland"]}>>

//tried this:
....
Portland <input type="radio" name="city" value="Portland" ${cityBean.cityRadio[city]}>>

//tried this:
....
Portland <input type="radio" name="city" value="Portland" ${cityRadio[cityBean.city]}>>

//tried this:
....
Portland <input type="radio" name="city" value="Portland" ${getCityRadio[cityBean.city]}>>

[Bear Bibeault]

Usually attempts to do a line-by-line replacement of scriptlets with EL are doomed to failure. Using modern JSP pages usually represents a change in thinking.

In your example, you are trying to call general functions with parameters from the EL. No can do. Only property fetching.

You might want to create some EL functions as a last resort, but I'd try to re-jigger things to do most of the work in the controller, and use EL properties on the page.

[Bear Bibeault]

Hint: consider the following example:

${someValue == 'Boston' ? 'checked' : ''}    

[Albareto McKenzie]

Bear Bibeault wrote: You might want to create some EL functions as a last resort

I deduce from here that you are not the best friend of creating EL functions, could you explain a bit why?

I like functions as they are powerful but I feel as if I were tricking the JSP, it's a bit like adding scriptless but with 'camouflage' in my opinion.

[Bear Bibeault]

Albareto McKenzie wrote:I deduce from here that you are not the best friend of creating EL functions ...

Hardly! I love EL functions! But they should only be created when necessary because what needs to be done can't be done using the EL, or creates hard-to-maintain code.

[Albareto McKenzie]

Ok! I missunderstood you, thanks for the reply.