Struts tag within struts tag

Question

Hi, i'm trying to preselect my dropdown list in my jsp page from a value inside a javabean:
<td>
         <html:select property="value(profType)" value="<bean:write name="item" ignore="true" property="profType"/>">
          <html:option value="postpay">POSTPAY</html:option>
          <html:option value="prepay">PREPAY</html:option>
          <html:option value="differential">DIFFERENTIAL</html:option>
          <html:option value="prepay-differential">PREPAY-DIF</html:option>
         </html:select>
     </td>However, I'm sure this isn't legal so is there another way to preselect the value?

Answer 1

Sorry it was a little abrupt.
Struts can work both ways.
Yes it takes the values from your html form, and maps it into your form-bean for you.
Great stuff.
However it can also take it from your form-bean and display it on the html form.
If you don't specify a value for the field, it will try and look it up using the name/property attributes of the tag.
Your property value(profType) would indicate that you are using a map backed form? If your form contains that value it should be able to populate the select box for you using that property.
ie all you should need is this:
<html:select property="value(profType)">
or maybe
<html:select name="item" property="profType")>
As you have noticed you can't nest custom tags as attributes to other custom tags. You can only use runtime expressions.
If you have JSP2.0 container then you could probably write it as
<html:select property="value(profType)" value="${item.profType}">