Custom Tag using object as an attribute.

Question

I have read up on trying to pass an object as an attribute to a custom tag.
Is it true that the only way to do this is to put the object, using a "key name" in the pageContext
Then in the custom tag, set an attribute equal to the "Key Name"
Then in the TagHandler, to do a lookup using the "Key Name"
We can not just past objects into the attribute?
And what is this about using EL or JSP2.0
sorry sort of new to the whole game.

Answer 1

Certainly you can pass objects to tags.
However you need to use a runtime expression to do that.
such as <%= expr %> or (with JSP2.0) ${expr}
If you look at the JSTL library, it uses the EL and passes in objects all the time. However the EL actually accesses the page/request etc attributes as its variable space, so you are still technically using attributes.
Is it true that the only way to do this is to put the object, using a "key name" in the pageContext
then in the custom tag, set an attribute equal to the "Key Name"
then in the TagHandler, to do a lookup using the "Key Name"That is one way of doing it. The struts libraries use this method extensively. It is more suited to JSP1.2.
Sometimes it is easier/neater just to put the value into a scoped attribute, and pass in the name of that attribute. That way you don't need to worrry about the type of the attribute at all in your JSP.
Hope this helps some,
evnafets