Trying to trigger a servlet from .jsp page on combo box change

Question

I have a jsp page with two combo boxes ( single select ).
Here's a snippet from the jsp page containing the code for the two combo boxes:
<form name="frmCountry" id="frmCountry" method="POST">
     <select name="selCountry" id="selCountry">
          <jsp:include page="/country" />
     </select>
</form>
<form name="frmCity" id="frmCity" method="POST">
     <select name="selCity" id="selCity">
          <jsp:include page="/city" />
     </select>
</form>
"country" and "city" are both mapped to servlets in the web.xml file
The country servlet successfully connects to the database and retrieves all countries
and populates the country combo box.
However, the populating of the city combo box depends on what country
is selected in the country combo box;
Here is a snippet of my code from the City servlet:
ResultSet rs;
rs = statement.executeQuery("SELECT City.countryID, City.id, City.name " +
               "FROM City " +
               "WHERE City.countryID = ( Country id ) " +
               "ORDER BY City.name");
Where ( Country id ) has to be somehow retrieved from the Country combo box
on the jsp page. Country id is actually the "value" property of each <option> in the
Country combo box. i.e.:
<option value="5">Portugal</option>
If it's not possible to retrieve the value property from the option,
I could always just use the Country name
So to reiterate, I need the City servlet to be called into action
any time a different country is selected in the country combo box.
I'm a newbie to jsp & servlets, so any suggestions much appreciated.
Edited by: Irish_Fred on Jan 20, 2010 4:29 AM

Answer 1

Cheers, I came up with a solution using Ajax, where I didn't have to change
anything in my servlets and only had to make minor changes to my jsp page.
I didn't want to use any javascript in my web app, but I guess Ajax
has addressed the issue of cross platform independence.