problem getting data from a servlet to a jsp page

[Harding, David]

i am trying to get some data from a servlet sent to a jsp page that the
servlet forwards to.

here is what i did:

    in servlet:

request.setAttribute("a_key", value);
RequestDispatcher dispatcher = request.getRequestDispatcher("/bleh.jsp");
dispatcher.forward(request, response);

    in bleh.jsp:

...
<%= request.getAttribute("a_key") %>
...


and i get a:

org.apache.jasper.compiler.ParseException: /bleh.jsp(9,72) Attribute a_key
has no value

now i changed my servlet to just print out value instead of doing the
forward call and found that there is indeed a value at the time i call
setAttribute().

what is going on here?

cheers,
   david j harding