JSTL snippets

Simple when you know how. Frustrating and time consuming when you don’t

If/ else

Because of the xml format we can’t have a

<c:if test=”${actionBean.test}”>

</c:if>

<c:else>

</c:else>

Instead we have to use choose, when and otherwise.

e.g.

<c:choose>

<c:when test="${actionBean.test}”>

</c:when>

<c:otherwise>

</c:otherwise>

</c:choose>

Looping through lists

Realated to above, I was trying to test if a list was populated.

First attempt was

<c:choose>

<c:when test="${actionBean.result.size>0}">

javax.el.PropertyNotFoundException: The class 'java.util.Collections$Synchronize

dCollection' does not have the property 'size'.

at javax.el.BeanELResolver.getBeanProperty(BeanELResolver.java:547)

at javax.el.BeanELResolver.getValue(BeanELResolver.java:249)

at javax.el.CompositeELResolver.getValue(CompositeELResolver.java:143)

at com.sun.el.parser.AstValue.getValue(AstValue.java:118)

at com.sun.el.parser.AstGreaterThan.getValue(AstGreaterThan.java:41)

Truncated. see log file for complete stacktrace

Solution is to use Not Empty

<c:when test="${not empty actionBean.result}">