I am sending a list of string from my controller to my jsp
model.addAttribute("itemList", Arrays.asList("first", "second"));
And trying to get them in my jsp
<c:forEach var="singleItem" items="${itemList}">
console.log(${singleItem});
</c:forEach>
But i am getting the following error
jQuery.Deferred exception: first is not defined
ReferenceError: first is not defined
console.log takes a string. The JS is rendered on the server, and run on the client. ${singleItem} needs to be:
Look at your rendered page: you will see
console.log(first);
console.log(second);
JS thinks those are variable references (because in JS, they are).
Just wrapping it in quotes is insufficient, because the string being rendered may have its own quotes, e.g.,
Arrays.asList("first's doodad")
Without JS escaping, and using JS single-quotes:
console.log('${singleItem}');
would render as:
console.log('first's doodad');
which is invalid JS.
Understanding where code is run, and knowing to check the rendered HTML, are important. When rendering into an environment it's important to understand the environment you're rendering in to, same as when rendering HTML into HTML.