backed up sql
changes to Item entity.  can now retrieve items by category
made changes to the EAO.  Adapting the category page to show all books of the selected category
changes to the category bean
attempted to add dynamic table to the category page to read in the different categories that were generated.  So far it's not working.
still working on category page and passing parameters.
attempting to simplify code to isolate the problem.
success!  I passed a parameter and displayed a list of the database items by clicking on a command button.  Life is good.