Help - I cant pass a variable into a Page Portal

[andyfl]

Hello All...Help!!!
A report has hypertext items in one column.
When one of these items is clicked, the url
resolved contains the address of a Page plus
a variable 'TAB_VAL' i wish to use.

This Page then loads on the browser and i can
see the 'TAB_VAL' value in the page address line.

The page contains a portal which is a report.
That report is a select statement using the
aforementioned variable. The page does not
seem to pass the variable to it's portal.

here is the code
1. The code that appears in the Page location address box.
html<machineort>servlet/page?_pageid=109&_dad=portal30&_schema=PORTAL30&p_arg_names=TAB_VAL&p_arg_values=123456

2. The HTML Portal code (customize) in the Page.
<html_frame_stuff
SRC=&quot;html<machineort>/pls/portal30/<2nd_REPORT>.show?p_arg_names=TAB_VAL&p_arg_values='||TAB_VAL||'&quot;>
</html_frame_stuff>

3. The 2nd_REPORT code.
select * from <TABLE>
where TAB_VAL=:TAB_VAL

If i hard code the '||TAB_VAL||' with 123456 in the
html portal the correct record is returned by the portal,
so the loss of the vaiable is between Page and its Portal.
Please tell me where i'm going wrong ??????????