How to invoking a (dynamic) property on a (dynamic) bean?

[Roel De Nijs]

I have a tag with 2 attributes: bean (could be any object) and property (a string). This tag should produce a span with

id of the span = the given property

content of the span = the value of the property of the given bean

Example of the desired behavior: <tags:myTag bean="${aList}" property="empty" /> should result in <span id="empty">true</span> (if aList is an empty list)

The 1st part isn't hard: <span id="${property}"></span>

But how can I do the 2nd part (if it's possible)?

[Bear Bibeault]

In other words, in the tag code you want to get alist.getEmpty()? Or alist.getXyz() if property="xyz"?

If it's completely arbitrary: reflection.

[Roel De Nijs]

Yes, that's exactly what I want to become. If EL expressions could be nested, it would be ${${bean}.${property}}

We are using Spring MVC, so a spring tag could also be a possible solution. But at 1st (and 2nd) glance I don't see any suitable tag for this issue. If reflection is the only way it can be done, I'll change the tag's attributes to id and value. I can live with <tags:myTag id="empty" value="${aList.empty}" />, although I tried to get rid of having to write 2 times "empty" (but not at all cost).

[Bear Bibeault]

If you want to do it in the EL, that's easy: ${bean[property]}

[Roel De Nijs]

Works like a charm! Thanks!

Such a simple and easy solution definitely deserves a cow.