title: selecting an option in a dropdown list using request parameters
body: <p>I'm kind of new to this so please bear with me. 
  I have a value from the db which needs to set the currently selected value in a dropdown .this is passed to the front end as a request parameter. I tried using selected="parameter" attribute with the select tag but doesnt seem to work. I also tried value="", no result. 
  Any help is appreciated. Thanks </p>