I am trying to read the request.getParameters of the url of the xml file that is being converted to html. I read that it is possible to
put JSP code in a html file and am trying to use that to read the parameters and values. What is the best way to do this without using Cocoon.

Thanks in advance.

I don't know about doing this in JSP. But it's easily done in a Java servlet, with code such as:

Enumeration p = req.getParameterNames();
while (p.hasMoreElements()) {
    String name = (String)p.nextElement();
    String value = req.getParameter(name);
    transformer.setParameter(name, value);
}

See SaxonServlet.java in the samples directory of the Saxon distribution for a more complete example.

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
Author, XSLT Programmer's Reference and XPath 2.0 Programmer's Reference