Accessing referenceData from custom JSTL

[stutchbury]

Is there any way to access a form's model (set by referenceData()) from within a JSTL class?

I would like to be able to reference an entry in the model by the Spring convention within a JSP

<myTagLib&#58;myTag 
  ...
  tagAttribute="$&#123;model.myCollection&#125;"
  ...
/>

I seem to be able to resolve the "${status.*}" properties OK, but I cannot find a way to retrieve the model entries.

Any ideas?

Philip

[rharing]

Since you are using that within your own tag, you will have to program it.. E.g.:

	/**
	 * This method will try to replace the expressions that are set between ${ and } with the bean values that it
	 * corresponds to. Since the parameter can contain more then just the expression, this must be done in a loop and 
	 * the parameter string must be parsed for each ${} combo (e.g. 
	 * onClick="return confirm('Replace ${bean.name} with ${bean.description}?');"
	 * @param parameter
	 * @return
	 */
	private String convertExpression(String parameter) {
		while( ExpressionEvaluationUtils.isExpressionLanguage(parameter) ) {
			String tobeReplaced = StringUtils.findBetween(parameter, "${", "}");
            StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
			sb.append("${").append(tobeReplaced).append("}");

			String value = null;
			try {
				value = (String) ExpressionEvaluationUtils.evaluateString("", sb.toString(), pageContext);
			} catch (JspException e) {
				value = "";
			}
			parameter = StringUtils.replace(parameter, sb.toString(), value);
		}
		return parameter;
	}

Gr
Ronald

[stutchbury]

Hi Ronald

Thanks for the response, but I'm not sure it answers my question - It seems that ExpressionEvaluationUtils only has access to the String (or boolean/Integer) representation of properties on the command object - I'm hoping to grab any class of object from the referenceData (in this particular instance, a Collection).

i.e. Once I have the name (key) of the model entry, how do I actually retrieve it? I thought the model was somehow attached to the errors object, but I can't find where I saw that documented or any way of accessing it.

Philip

[stutchbury]

Aha! The solution...

This post http://forum.springframework.org/showthread.php?t=12480 gave me a clue:

HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest)pageContext.getAttribute(PageContext.REQUEST);
        Object modelEntry = request.getAttribute("myCollection");

Philip