Using Scriptlets

The scriptlet element can be used to add a whole block of code to a page, including variable declarations. The code block must be enclosed by a scriptlet start-identifier, <%, and an end-identifier, %>. Example 15-1 shows a scriptlet that creates test data for action elements.

Example 15-1. Scriptlet creating test data (scriptlet.jsp) 

<%@ page language="java" contentType="text/html" %>
<%@ page import="java.util.*" %>
<%@ taglib prefix="c" uri="http://java.sun.com/jstl/core" %>
  
<%
                  // Create an ArrayList with test data
                  ArrayList list = new ArrayList(  );
                  Map author1 = new HashMap(  );
                  author1.put("name", "John Irving");
                  author1.put("id", new Integer(1));
                  list.add(author1);
                  Map author2 = new HashMap(  );
                  author2.put("name", "William Gibson");
                  author2.put("id", new Integer(2));
                  list.add(author2);
                  Map author3 = new HashMap(  );
                  author3.put("name", "Douglas Adams");
                  author3.put("id", new Integer(3));
                  list.add(author3);
                  pageContext.setAttribute("authors", list);
                  %>
<html>
  <head>
    <title>Search result: Authors</title>
  </head>
  <body bgcolor="white">
    Here are all authors matching your search critera:
    <table>
      <th>Name</th>
      <th>Id</th>
      <c:forEach items="${authors}" var="current">
        <tr>
          <td><c:out value="${current.name}" /><td>
          <td><c:out value="${current.id}" /><td>
        </tr>
      </c:forEach>
    </table>
  </body>
</html>

The scriptlet element contains Java code that creates a java.util.ArrayList with java.util.HashMap elements and saves the list as a page scope attribute named authors by calling ...

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