Deleting a value from sql database using jsp - sql

Question

I'm trying to use jsp to rendering a simple database and have the ability to delete a row using a button. I'm running into the trouble of not being able to fetch the primary key from the row because I've been using to iterate through the table. I've tried passing just simple numbers to denote the primary key (integers) but its not grabbing it.
Lets say I want to delete the row with the primary key of 12.
<form action="deleteResponse.jsp">
<c:set var="numId" value="12"/>
<input type="submit" name="delete" value="Delete"/>
</form>
This generates a button which opens up deleteResponse.jsp which has the following to catch the value.
<sql:update var="counselorDelete" dataSource="jdbc/IFPWAFCAD">
DELETE FROM Counselor
WHERE counselor_id = ?<sql:param value="${param.numId}"/>
</sql:update>
It's not doing anything, and I'm not sure whats going on with it. If I manually put in the value 12 in the sql query it will delete the row but it won't do it if I try to fetch the value.
Thanks very much in advance!
Also as a side note. I'm having a hard time understanding how to properly write JSPs. I see that most of the time people use <% Java code %> but in the netbean tutorial, it uses the and functions. Could someone explain that to me? I'm also using glassfish as a localhost sql server. Netbean generates a glassfish xml but I also see people using DriverManager.getConnection methods. Which one is conventionally better?

Answer 1

I would try to separate the UI/JSP code from the DAO layer, using a seperate Bean to handle all the insert/uodate/delete operations.
Take a look at the logfiles of your Applicationserver, this might give you some hints.
Kr, R
Edit: Concerning the sql:
<sql:update var="counselorDelete" dataSource="jdbc/IFPWAFCAD"
sql="DELETE FROM Counselor WHERE counselor_id = ?" >
<sql:param value="${param.numId}"/>
</sql:update>