adding validation leads to NullPointerException

hi, I have a JSP (snippet below) that works fine without validation, I need to conditionally include certain fields, I prefer that to the other choice of having two different copies of slightly similar input form JSP that I will then have to keep in sync. Only when I add a validation xml

Re: adding validation leads to NullPointerException

From the code you've provided it's failing at request.getAttribute(buttonLabel).equals(Simulate)) Can you please specify how/where buttonLabel is set in the code. The only thing i can think of is that validation is stopping the flow to execute() and some variable set there may not be visible