Problems using scriptlets as tag parameters

Question

Greetings:
I have a custom tag called genrl:viewData which receives as its (required) argument a string called "ID". Essentially, the tag works as follows:
<genrl:viewData ID="8989" /> where the value of the ID points to something in a database.
I have discovered that as long as I pass an explicit string (like "8989") to ID all seems to go well. Unfortunately, I'd like to use a scriptlet -- for example:
<% String ident = "8989"; %> (or something else, like a parameter)
<genrl:viewData ID="<%= ident %>"/>
According to the documentation and the books on JSP, Ishould be able to do something like this. Unfortunately, whenever I attempt to pass a scriptlet to my tag, my JSP container generates the following compilation error:
Mon Jan 27 16:19:11 EST 2003:<I> <WebAppServletContext-LS> failed to compile /item/InterventionView.jsp, compiler errors:
C:\weblogic\ls1\.\CDLM\LS\WEB-INF\_tmp_war_LS\jsp_servlet\_item\__interventionvi
ew.java:87: unclosed string literal
comjsptags_general_GetInterventionTag_0.setID(weblogic.utils.StringUtils.valueOf("<%= ident //[ /item/InterventionView.jsp; Line: 32]
^
C:\weblogic\ls1\.\CDLM\LS\WEB-INF\_tmp_war_LS\jsp_servlet\_item\__interventionvi
ew.java:88: ')' expected... (and a bunch of other irelevant stuff)
I have tried enclosing the scriptlet in single quotes, double quotes, and I've even tried using backslashes at strategic places. Nothing seems to prevent this error.
Could someone please advise? How can one pass a scriptlet value to a tag without getting these errors??? Or have I found a bug in the several books and in Sun's documentation of tag libraries???
Any advice on this matter would be appreciated.
-Factor Three

Answer 1

Make sure you have set the paramater to scripable in the tld file:
    <tag>
    <name>DispatchFieldDisable</name>
    <tagclass>KioskTags.AssignmentTags.DispatchFieldDisable</tagclass>
    <info>Disable fields already populated with valid values in Dispatch form </info>
        <attribute>
                <name>inField</name>
                <required>true</required>
                <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
       </attribute>
        <attribute>
                <name>mode</name>
                <required>false</required>
                <rtexprvalue>true</rtexprvalue>
       </attribute>
    </tag> <P>
<kiosk:DispatchFieldDisable inField="<%=DispatchFieldDisable.ALL%>" mode="<%=DispatchFieldDisable.TITLE%>"> </kiosk:DispatchFieldDisable>