[ProggerPete]

I'm trying to display an alert based on a request parameter and it is giving me problems.

I'm calling the page as follows

// check for duplicate Layer name or title
	ResultSet rs = DatabaseConnection.Query("SELECT * FROM tblLayers WHERE Layer_Name = '" + request.getParameter("Layer_Name") + "'");
	if (rs.next())
	{
		//duplicate name exists
		%>
			<script language="JavaScript">
				alert("A Layer with this name already exists");
			</script>
		<%
		response.sendRedirect("new_data_registration.jsp?Duplicate=name");
	}
	else
	{
		rs = DatabaseConnection.Query("SELECT * FROM tblLayers WHERE Layer_Description = '" + request.getParameter("Layer_Description") + "'");
		if (rs.next())
		{
			//duplicate description exists
			response.sendRedirect("new_data_registration.jsp?Duplicate=title");
		}
	}
	rs.close();

This appears to work fine and if the redirect happens I see either
new_data_registration.jsp?Duplicate=name or new_data_registration.jsp?Duplicate=title as the url at the top of the page.

My problem comes when I try to access the Duplicate paramater. I have attempted to get it using

	<%
		if (request.getParameter("Duplicate") != null)
		{
			%>
				<script language="JavaScript">
					alert("A Layer with this " + <%= request.getParameter("Duplicate") %> + " already exists");
				</script>
			<%
		}
	%>

For some reason this displays an alert say "A Layer with this menu already exists" when duplicate = name (Note the msg says menu, not name)
and displays nothing at all when Duplicate = title

Has anyone got any ideas as to what is going on?

[Nemi]

OK, this problem likely stems from the redirects. Look at what you are sending to the browser. First you send an alert

<script language="JavaScript">
	alert("A Layer with this name already exists");
</script>

The you send a redirect header

response.sendRedirect("new_data_registration.jsp?Duplicate=name");

So, when you get to the new_data_registration_page the browser is displaying the alert it got right before the redirect header. Remove that alert and see what it does. Secondly, if all you have is an alert in script tags, and they are not in html tags, that technically is not proper html and some browsers won't display the alert on the second page. Why it would show the first and not the second I don't know, but since it is not "kosher", you should eliminate it as a possible problem. Try looking at the source of the page and see if it is there, or better yet, simply print it out to the screen instead of trying to do an alert.

[ProggerPete]

Thanks nemi, the alert in the redirecting page was unneccessary. I just forgot to pull it out. Looking at the source of the generated page sorted me out quickly though.

The generated code looked like

<script language="JavaScript">
					alert("A Layer with this " + name + " already exists");
				</script>

Obviously wrong. I'm now generating the right code with

<script language="JavaScript">
					alert("A Layer with this " + <%= "\"" + request.getParameter("Duplicate") + "\""%> + " already exists");
				</script>

Thanks for your help.