Web.xml - can't get the url from xml file..

Question

Hi all,
Im a beginner @ jsp =)
My question is as follow..I cant get base from the web.xml file.
This is a shorten version of my web.xml..
<web-app>
     <welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>Default.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>
     <!-- Define the controller servlet -->
     <servlet>
          <servlet-name>ControllerServlet</servlet-name>
          <servlet-class>ControllerServlet</servlet-class>
          <!-- Define initial parameters that will be loaded into
          the ServletContext object in the controller servlet -->
     <init-param>
               <param-name>base</param-name>
               <param-value>http://localhost:8080/burnaby/ControllerServlet</param-value>
          </init-param>
</servlet>
     <servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>ControllerServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/ControllerServlet</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
</web-app>
And my jsp file:
<%
     String base = (String) application.getAttribute("base");
     String imageUrl = (String) application.getAttribute("imageUrl");
%>
<table width="740" cellpading="0" height="75" cellspacing="0" border="0">
     <tr>
          <td align="left" bgcolor="#F6F6F6">
               <font face="Verdana" size="3">Sky's E-mall!</font>
          </td>
          <td align="right" bgcolor="#F6F6F6">
               <a href="<%=base%>?action=displayShoppingCart"><img border="0" src="<%=(imageUrl + "cart.gif" )%>"></a>
               ���
          </td>
     </tr>
</table>
I have written it of a book im reading and i cant get it to work. Base and imageUrl always become null.
thank you
/Robert

Answer 1

I'm a little new to JSPs and servlets too, but I'll give this one a shot. I think since your variables like 'base' are servlet initial parameters, they don't get initialized until you actually call the servlet ( I'm not 100% on this, though). Try calling the servlet and having it forward the response back to your original JSP and see if you get values then.