Dynamically create drop down box with JSP

Question

Hi,
I hope this is not a repeat post, I have search the forum and a posting has not jumped out at me. I am making a jsp that dynamically constructs a custom SQL query.
I have a number of text boxes with an id, my jsp page calls a servlet, the servlet reads the contorl id and the value to build the query - this works great. However, there's a large text input box which receives a number of extra conditions - this text box receives the input in the following format:
searchAttributeName1,searchAttributeValue1;searchAttributeName2,searchAttributeValue2
This is functional, however, it's a bit rubbish as the user has to know the special recognised attributeNames. What I would like to have is some sort of criteria control. This would consist of a drop down box populated from the servlet, a text input for the value and a button to add another criteria control. so the user could build up the number of query criteria. The drop down box ensures they cannot select the wrong keyword, pressing the add criteria button adds a new drop down box and text box pair to the screen.
An example of this I recently saw was at Intel's jobs search web site https://jobs.intel.com/jobs/jobs.iccw - see that for example.
Has anyone got any ideas on how to achieve this? I initially thought use jsp scripting (there is no restriction against this) but I need to use javascript I'm guessing as the button click triggers adding a new combo box. Another idea was to use styles and tables to hide the other drop down boxes but this seems like a real hack that I'd like to avoid. I can do with with .NET i hope java can deliver!
Any ideas are much appreciated - I am a novice with java web development so please, any examples thoroughly explain (no need to explain populating the drop down box - there seem to be plenty of posts on this).
Thanks for any help or ideas on this issue -

Answer 1

Gina,
Here is some sample code for using a ComboBox in a JSP from an EditCurrentRecord bean. This particular example uses a query, you can also populate combo boxes, list boxes, radio buttons and checkboxes from a static list. See the JavaDocs for the EditCurrentRecord bean.
<jsp:useBean id="RowEditor" class="oracle.jbo.html.databeans.EditCurrentRecord" scope="request">
<%
RowEditor.initialize(application, session , request, response, out, "wt_bc_WT_bcModule.WalkthroughEngineSlidesView");
RowEditor.setTargetUrl("WalkthroughEngineSlidesView_SubmitInsertForm.jsp");
RowEditor.createNewRow();
RowEditor.setReleaseApplicationResources(true);
RowEditor.useComboBox("Presname","select pres_name,pres_name from wt_info","PRES_NAME","PRES_NAME");
RowEditor.render();
%>
</jsp:useBean>
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