Question

I am currently using a javaBean to save/load values to and from a jsp. Here what is happening:

I have the following line in my jsp:

<td><input class="partDescription" name="partDescription" style="width: 250px" type="text" readonly="readonly" value=<%=affectedBean.getPartDescription().get(i) %> /></td> 

When I debug through the code this is value stored in the affectedBean.getPartDescription at index 0: BK SLOPE CONTROLLER

However, when it the page finishes loading the only thing it shows is in that location is: BK

Other examples:

Value: ROLF REDESIGNED UL SUPPLY; Displays: ROLF
Value: 18 FUEL SENSOR; Displays: 18

Anybody have any ideas

Answer 1

In HTML elements, spaces are a special separator character for HTML element attributes like type, value, etc.

When printing attribute values without doublequotes like follows

<input type="text" value=<%=affectedBean.getPartDescription().get(i) %> />

then the generated HTML ends up as

<input type="text" value=BK SLOPE CONTROLLER />

All parts beyond the space are been interpreted as another attributes. A bit intelligent syntax highlighter should already have turned on some light above your head. It’s colored differently!

So, you need to put quotes around the value

<input type="text" value="<%=affectedBean.getPartDescription().get(i) %>" />

so that the generated HTML ends up as

<input type="text" value="BK SLOPE CONTROLLER" />

---

Unrelated to the concrete problem, using scriptlets is discouraged, you should prefer using taglibs/EL. Assuming that you’ve put the affectedBean as attribute of the request, do so:

<c:forEach items="${affectedBean.partDescription}" var="partDescription">
    <input type="text" value="${partDescription}" />
</c:forEach>