protected Object evaluateExpression(String expression) throws ObjectLookupException 
{
        String expressionWithoutScope = expression;
        // default scope = request
        // this is for compatibility with the previous version, probably default should be PAGE
        int scope = PageContext.REQUEST_SCOPE;
        if (expression.startsWith("pageScope.")) //$NON-NLS-1$
        {
            scope = PageContext.PAGE_SCOPE;
            expressionWithoutScope = expressionWithoutScope.substring(expressionWithoutScope.indexOf('.") + 1);
        }
        else if (expression.startsWith("requestScope.")) //$NON-NLS-1$
        {
            scope = PageContext.REQUEST_SCOPE;
            expressionWithoutScope = expressionWithoutScope.substring(expressionWithoutScope.indexOf('.") + 1);
        }
        else if (expression.startsWith("sessionScope.")) //$NON-NLS-1$
        {
            scope = PageContext.SESSION_SCOPE;
            expressionWithoutScope = expressionWithoutScope.substring(expressionWithoutScope.indexOf('.") + 1);
        }
        else if (expression.startsWith("applicationScope.")) //$NON-NLS-1$
        {
            scope = PageContext.APPLICATION_SCOPE;
            expressionWithoutScope = expressionWithoutScope.substring(expressionWithoutScope.indexOf('.") + 1);
        }
        return LookupUtil.getBeanValue(this.pageContext, expressionWithoutScope, scope);
}

evaluate an expression in a way similar to LE in jstl.

the first token is supposed to be an object in the page scope (default scope) or one of the following:

• pageScope
• requestScope
• sessionScope
• applicationScope

Tokens after the object name are interpreted as javabean properties (accessed through getters), mapped or indexed properties, using the jakarta common-beans library