Java EE (Java Enterprise Edition) General Discussion

Using plain JSP, is there a way to pass inputted values as arguments of a method (of perhaps a bean or utility class) and send it off? Or is this only something that can be done with JSF's backing beans or Struts or some other framework?

An example is a login page that accepts a username and password. How could you actually send those values off somewhere to be checked whether they are correct without having scriplets in the page?

Perhaps tag handlers could do the trick? But is there a way to put something in the "action" attribute of the form element, like in JSF/Struts?

Thanks.