How to use setPropertyActionListener in a c:forEach loop?

Question

Hi, I have the following code, when click "Edit", it'll generate a null pointer exception, looks like "item" was never registered in the backing bean via setPropertyActionListener:
//List<Menu>menus
<c:forEach items="${menus}" var="menu">
     <p class="formTitle">${menu.type}:</p>
     <table class="displayData">
          <c:forEach items="${menu.items}" var="item">
          <tr>
               <td class="leftCol">${item.name}</td>
               <td class="rightCol">
                    <h:commandLink value="Edit" action="#{backingBean.editRow_click}">
                    <f:setPropertyActionListener target="#{backingBean.item}" value="#{item}"/>
                    </h:commandLink>
               </td>
          </tr>
          </c:forEach>
     </table>
</c:forEach>in the backing bean, i have:
private Item item;
//getter - setter
public void editRow_click(){
          System.out.println("edit row click: "+ this.getItem().getName());      <-- _null pointer exception because item is null, and was not set via setPropertyActionListener_
     }Menu class
private String type;
List<Item> items
(and other properties...)
//getter setter//Item class
private String name;
(and other properties...)
//getter setter//

Answer 1

hi, i just try my code again this morning, and noticed i can get setPropertyActionListener to work if i pass String instead of a "Item" object under target attribute. however, the value attribute won't take an expression.... it seems like i can only pass a literal string???
this work...
menuItem are now type String instead of type Item,
<c:forEach items="${sessionScope.ServiceManager.menus}" var="menu">
     <p class="formTitle">${menu.stapleType}:</p>
     <table class="displayData">
          <c:forEach items="${menu.items}" var="item">
          <tr>
               <td class="leftCol">${item.name} ($${item.price})</td>
               <td class="rightCol">
                    <h:commandLink value="Edit" action="#{menuBean.editRow_click}">
                    <f:setPropertyActionListener target="#{menuBean.menuItem}" value="lalala"/>
                    </h:commandLink>
               </td>
          </tr>
          </c:forEach>
     </table>
</c:forEach>when clicking the edit link, i'll get "lalala"
public void editRow_click(){
          System.out.println("edit row click: "+ this.getMenuItem());
     }if i switch to expression, this won't work:
<f:setPropertyActionListener target="#{menuBean.menuItem}" value="#{item.id}"/>when click edit link, i'll get a empty string
if i switch to jstl expression, this will cause run time error:
<f:setPropertyActionListener target="#{menuBean.menuItem}" value="${item.id}"/>
org.apache.jasper.JasperException: /WEB-INF/formDataView/menu_view.jsp(15,4) According to TLD or attribute directive in tag file, attribute value does not accept any expressions