Can't resolve objects using EL

Question

public class Foo extends Properties {
    public String getVal(){
         return "2";
    }
}

In my HttpServlet class' doGet(..) method I am doing this,

Foo foo = new Foo();
request.setAttribute("key", foo);

Then in the .jsp is this code,

1  ${key}
2  ${key.val}
3  <%=request.getAttribute("key")%>
4  <%=((Foo)request.getAttribute("key")).getVal()%>

And this is the output,

1  {}
2  
3  {}
4  2

Could anyone tell my why ${key.val} doesn't work?

[Edit] I am only interested on the one property from the foo class, since it seems there is no way to access the getVar() call using EL(Right?), would a viable alternative be to jsut put?

request.setAttribute("key_val", foo.getVal());

Foo is a sub class of a subclass of the Properties class so there is no way for me to decouple them easily.

Answer 1

Maybe you have EL disabled? Check these two answers for possible reasons and solutions:

• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/504071/el-in-a-jsp-stopped-evaluating/504186#504186
• http://stackoverflow.com/questions/472500/javascript-string-replace-str-works-weirdly-in-jsp-file/472573#472573

Another possibility is that you have key bound to something different in your other contexts. This code:

${key}

Is equivalent to:

<%= page.findAttribute("key") %>

and not <%= request.getAttribute("key") %>. It searches for in pageContext first, then request, session and application context at last.

Answer 2

Your Foo class has a toString() method which prints like {} and the val probably called the wrong getter. Add some debug lines/breakpoints to the getter calls. If in vain, post more detail of how the Foo class look like.