Consistent calling of actions from JSP and code

Question

I have a question about opening up a JSP with a particular parameter (to set what we're looking at, for example).
If I want to do it from a JSP, I can do something like this
<af:commandLink text="Edit Scientist" action="editScientist">
<f:param name="id" value="#{bbUserInfo.scientistId}"/>
</af:commandLink>
That follows the listed action, and sets #{param.id} to be the necessary value.
If I want my action to be dynamic (using code from a bean), I can do this:
JSFUtils.setRequestAttribute("id", scientistId);
return "editScientist";
(where JSFUtils is a class from various official tutorials).
However, that sets #{requestScope.id} instead of #{param.id}. Is there a way of making these two calls consistent (for example, set the param.id from within the bean)?
Regards,
David C

Answer 1

I have worked out one way to do this. I use this in the parameters section:
<parameter id="sciId" value="${param.id == null ? requestScope.id : param.id}"/>
And then I can reference bindings.sciId. Seems to work.
David C