Question

Setup: iMac 10.6.8, Apache Tomcat 6.0.16, eXist DataBase, JSP, Java, XML

I have a JSP page that is used to take keyword requests from users and return XML content.

Depending on the content of the title XML tag returned to the user I am looking to also display additional content pulled from an external Java project.

My JSP to pull XML content

<div class='result-container'>
<%          
            (more code here to call content from XML database and transform)

            content = AE.getPrettyModelContent("ae", username + "transformedFeatureModel");
            out.println(content);
%>
</div>

This content is outputted with a verity of tags that are then used for styling e.g.

<title>France</title>

Gets outputted as

<div id="title">France</div> 

I am looking to preform another action on my JSP page depending on the content of the above outputted tag.

My attempt so far

<div class='concept-container'>
<%

Injector injector = Guice.createInjector(new GuiceInjector());
ConceptConnector myConceptFrance = injector.getInstance(ConceptConnector.class);

if (div id="title" == France)
{
out.println(myConceptFrance.search(myConceptFrance));
} 

%>
</div>

The Error

An error occurred at line: 150 in the jsp file: /SimpleResponse2.jsp
div cannot be resolved
149: 
150:    if (div id="title" == France)
151:    {
152:    out.println(myConceptFrance.search(myConceptFrance));
153:    }

I am not a 100% sure that what im trying to do is possible and there does not appear to be a lot of information on it. If anyone can give any tips it would be very much appreciated.

Answer 1

I may not fully understand, the question, but based on: if (div id="title" == France) it sounds like you’re trying to parse and edit the HTML that you output some HTML that you output here: out.println(content);. This is impossible (you can’t read the output HTML back into the Java)
Here are some possible workarounds to consider:

1. Save “content” as a variable java variable to be used further down the line in comparisons later (I would simplify it, save only the portion of the data you want) – I think that is likely to present problems when scaled though.
2. Put the comparisons and checks all in the same code block before outputting anything to the page
3. Use some AJAX to handle the later logic — (Use Javascript to check for certain features on the page and maybe call a controller servlet that acts on that)

4. Instead of directly using out.println() when you want something to be added to the page, use a StringBuffer or something to keep a copy of what you’re printing so you can search it later. — Maybe (if you don’t need to manipulate something after printing it you do out.println AND write it to the StringBuffer, then you can search, see below:

   public static void main(String[] args){
       StringBuffer sb = new StringBuffer();
       sb.append("<div id=\"additionalData\">Italy</div> <div id=\"title\">France</div> ");
       System.out.println(sb.indexOf("id=\"title\">France</div>") > -1); // output true
       System.out.println(sb.indexOf("id=\"title\">Italy</div>") > -1); // outputs false
   
   }
   

I’m sure there’s other solutions as well, but that’s what I’ve can think of right away. Hope this helps.