So I want to have it output %2B instead of +

I was trying to do it using the <c:out escapeXML="true"> but i dont want to escape the necessary brackets and quotes is there away to escape the escapeXML?

I am not sure I follow. I am trying to get the c++ tag to work...

If I convert the tag itself to c%2B%2B which is easy enough than when I print it I will have to replace the %2B with a +

you think that is a better way to go?

<c:param> will encode url parameters. It has to be nested inside a <c:url> though. For example, the following weird-looking code will create a href a.html?tag=c%2b%2b:

<a href="<c:url value="a.html"><c:param name="tag" value="c++" /></c:url>">a</a>

abess wrote:

That worked perfectly, thanks prof sun. However, how do we un-param it once we're done?  I'd like to place that param back into the html code, but it only shows as "C" because the parameter is C%2B%2B or w/e...

If the tag is a scoped variable, you would have something like

<a href="<c:url value="ListQuestionsByTag"><c:param name="tag" value="${tag}" /></c:url>">${tag}</a>

And if it's a request parameter, you can have something like

${param.tag}

In either case it should display c++ correctly.

abess wrote:

Right, but for instance, I use the param xml encoding, and I am redirercted to the site: http://cs3.calstatela.edu:8080/cs320stu31/index.jsp?tag=c%2B%2B.

If I were to use ${param.tag} in that jsp page, it would only show as "c" in the output rather than "c++".  Is there any way to fix that?

Are you sure? If you go to http://cs3.calstatela.edu:8080/cs320stu31/Test.jsp?tag=c%2b%2b you can see that c++ is correctly displayed using ${param.tag}. The source code of Test.jsp is attached.

abess wrote:

I forward this:

<a href="<c:url value="cs320AnswersMVC"><c:param name="tag" value="${tageach}" /></c:url>">${tageach}</a>

and then I from cs320Answers MVC, I forward it like this:

String tag = request.getParameter( "tag" );

request.getRequestDispatcher("/cs320AnswersJSP.jsp?tag=" + tag).forward(request, response);

Which shows: /cs320AnswersMVC?tag=c%2b%2b in the url bar, even though it shows the proper cs320AnswersJSP.jsp page.  However, once I change that to /cs320AnswersJSP.jsp?tag=c%2b%2b It displays the "C++" correctly.

Not sure how to fix this... seems like a forwarding error.

Request parameters are decoded in servlet, so when you do tag=request.getParameter("tag"), tag is c++ instead c%2b%2b, and when you do "/cs320AnswersJSP.jsp?tag="+tag it becomes /cs320AnswersJSP.jsp?tag=c++.

The error is easy to fix - just remove the line "String tag ..." and forward to /cs320AnswersJSP.jsp instead of /cs320AnswersJSP.jsp?tag=.... Note that a forwarded request includes all its parameters, so you don't need to do getParameter() then try to attach the parameter back.