Question

Is it possible to do smth like this:

<button type="submit" name="Remove" value=<% request.setAttribute("status", "removed")%> >Remove</button><br />

Will the button value workout this way?

Answer 1

No, it won’t work that way. Java/JSP runs in the webserver and generates HTML which the webserver sends to webbrowser. Rightclick page in webbrowser and do View Source. You see, there’s no single line of Java/JSP code.

The value attribute should represent the button’s value which is to be sent as request parameter value. If you actually want to check in the next view (as definied in <form action> URL of the form associated with this button), then you should just check the presence of the button’s name in the request parameter map.

<c:if test="${not empty param.Remove}">
    You pressed the Remove button!
</c:if>

(here Remove is the name of the button, I’d rather lowercase it by the way)

Alternatively, you can set the attribute in the servlet which the form is submitting to:

if (request.getParameter("Remove") != null) {
    request.setAttribute("status", "removed");
}

and then check it in the forwarded JSP as follows:

<c:if test="${status == 'removed'}">
    You pressed the Remove button!
</c:if>