Accessing Data From the Page

With this task, you will initialize the combobox widgets with the server-side data.

1. Open index.jsp into the source editor pane.

2. Expand the JSP node in the Palette and select and drag Use Bean into the Source Editor below the h1 tag.

3. In the Insert Use Bean dialog box, enter the following values and then click OK.

   • ID: StateBean

   • Class: plotCity.StateBean

   • Scope: session

   The IDE generates the following tag:

   <jsp:useBean id="StateBean" scope="session" 
   	class="plotCity.StateBean" />

   This tag gives index.jsp access to the StateBean component.

4. Replace the value attribute of the thisState tag with an EL expression that points to the states property of StateBean:

   value="${StateBean.states}"

5. Replace the value element of the thisCity tag with an EL expression that points to the cities property of StateBean.

   value="${StateBean.cities}"

6. Save the file.

7. (Optional) Right-click the project node and select Run.

   Your browser should open and show the two comboboxes populated with the data your created. With the next set of tasks, you will add the event-handling mechanism so that you can select a city and plot it on the map.