How to get parameters from the URL with JSP

Question

About the Implicit Objects of the Unified Expression Language, the Java EE 5 Tutorial writes:

Implicit Objects

The JSP expression language defines a set of implicit objects:

• pageContext: The context for the JSP page. Provides access to various objects including:
  • servletContext: The context for the JSP page’s servlet and any web components contained in the same application. See Accessing the Web Context.
  • session: The session object for the client. See Maintaining Client State.
  • request: The request triggering the execution of the JSP page. See Getting Information from Requests.
  • response: The response returned by the JSP page. See Constructing Responses.
• In addition, several implicit objects are available that allow easy access to the following objects:
  • param: Maps a request parameter name to a single value
  • paramValues: Maps a request parameter name to an array of values
  • header: Maps a request header name to a single value
  • headerValues: Maps a request header name to an array of values
  • cookie: Maps a cookie name to a single cookie
  • initParam: Maps a context initialization parameter name to a single value
• Finally, there are objects that allow access to the various scoped variables described in Using Scope Objects.
  • pageScope: Maps page-scoped variable names to their values
  • requestScope: Maps request-scoped variable names to their values
  • sessionScope: Maps session-scoped variable names to their values
  • applicationScope: Maps application-scoped variable names to their values

The interesting parts are in bold :)

So, to answer your question, you should be able to access it like this (using EL):

${param.accountID}

Or, using JSP Scriptlets (not recommended):

<%
    String accountId = request.getParameter("accountID");
%>

In a GET request, the request parameters are taken from the query string (the data following the question mark on the URL). For example, the URL http://hostname.com?p1=v1&p2=v2 contains two request parameters - - p1 and p2. In a POST request, the request parameters are taken from both query string and the posted data which is encoded in the body of the request.

This example demonstrates how to include the value of a request parameter in the generated output:

Hello <b><%= request.getParameter("name") %></b>!

If the page was accessed with the URL:

http://hostname.com/mywebapp/mypage.jsp?name=John+Smith

the resulting output would be:

Hello <b>John Smith</b>!

If name is not specified on the query string, the output would be:

Hello <b>null</b>!

This example uses the value of a query parameter in a scriptlet:

<%
    if (request.getParameter("name") == null) {
        out.println("Please enter your name.");
    } else {
        out.println("Hello <b>"+request. getParameter("name")+"</b>!");
    }
%>

Use EL (JSP Expression Language):

${param.accountID}

If I may add a comment here...

<c:out value="${param.accountID}"></c:out>

doesn't work for me (it prints a 0).

Instead, this works:

<c:out value="${param['accountID']}"></c:out>

request.getParameter("accountID") is what you're looking for. This is part of the Java Servlet API. See http://java.sun.com/j2ee/sdk_1.3/techdocs/api/javax/servlet/ServletRequest.html for more information.