Strnage error with JSTL 1.0

Question

Hi all,
I've just started exploring the use of JSTL 1.0 tag libraries in my application and everything has been cool so far... up till I encountered this strange error.
What I did was this:
1) create 2 ArrayLists in a HTTP Servlet and put them onto the request context as as follows
ArrayList ListofForumsForWhichUserIsASecretariatContact = forumDAO.selectAllForumsBySecretariatContact(userID);
ArrayList upcomingMeetings = meetingDAO.selectUpcomingMeetingsByForumID(Integer.parseInt(currentForumID));
                pageContext.setAttribute("ListofForumsForWhichUserIsASecretariatContact", ListofForumsForWhichUserIsASecretariatContact, PageContext.REQUEST_SCOPE);
                pageContext.setAttribute("upcomingMeetings", upcomingMeetings, PageContext.REQUEST_SCOPE);As you can see, the ArrayList are actually populated by DAOs
2) On my JSP page, I tried to iterate through both lists and display their data. The first one came out ok, but the second one gave me this nasty looking error:
javax.servlet.jsp.JspException: An error occurred while evaluating custom
action attribute "value" with value "${upcomingMeeting.name}": Unable to find a
value for "name" in object of class "java.lang.String" using operator "." (null) at org.apache.taglibs.standard.lang.jstl.Evaluator.evaluate(Evaluator.java:109) at
org.apache.taglibs.standard.lang.jstl.Evaluator.evaluate(Evaluator.java:129) at
org.apache.taglibs.standard.lang.support.ExpressionEvaluatorManager.evaluate(ExpressionEvaluatorManager.java:75) at
org.apache.taglibs.standard.tag.el.core.ExpressionUtil.evalNotNull
(ExpressionUtil.java:48) at org.apache.taglibs.standard.tag.el.core.OutTag.evaluateExpressions
(OutTag.java:99) at org.apache.taglibs.standard.tag.el.core.OutTag.doStartTag
(OutTag.java:57) at org.apache.jsp.manageMeetings_jsp._jspx_meth_c_out_5(manageMeetings_jsp.java:523) at
org.apache.jsp.manageMeetings_jsp._jspService
(manageMeetings_jsp.java:209) at
org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:92) at
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:809) at
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service
(JspServletWrapper.java:162) at
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:240) at
org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:187) at
javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:809) at
org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.invoke
(ApplicationDispatcher.java:627) at
org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.doForward
(ApplicationDispatcher.java:382) at
org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationDispatcher.forward
(ApplicationDispatcher.java:306) at
myworkplace.meetingManager.controller.MeetingServlet.doGet
(MeetingServlet.java:141) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service
(HttpServlet.java:696) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service
(HttpServlet.java:809) at
org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter
(ApplicationFilterChain.java:200) at
org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter
(ApplicationFilterChain.java:146) at
org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke
(StandardWrapperValve.java:209) at
... 3) I've tried to check if the servlet has passed the 2 ArrayLists to the JSP correctly using the following scriplet, with the necessary imports, of course
<%
ArrayList upcomingMeetings = (ArrayList) pageContext.getAttribute("upcomingMeetings", PageContext.REQUEST_SCOPE);
Iterator iter = upcomingMeetings.iterator();
while (iter.hasNext()) {
    MeetingVO meeting = (MeetingVO) iter.next();
    out.println("ID=" + meeting.getID() + ", name=" + meeting.getName());
%>This displayed the results I was looking for, i.e. the IDs and Names of the "meetings" in the ArrayList. So it seems that my servlet is passing the object correctly to the JSP, but JSTL doesn't seem to be casting properly here :-(
I don't understand why one ArrayList would work, while another fails??
Anyone ever encountered this anomaly before? Appreciate any help, as this is for a urgent project due soon :-(
Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

Ah yes, that's it!
Thanks for the tip!
Lesson learnt: take a break after every few hours of programming. Otherwise, even the most glaring of all errors laughs at you in the face ;-)