Unable to show contents of variable enclosed by div as inline in thickbox

I am trying to put a variable 'htmlcontent' into a div element and refer to the divId to show on the thickbox, but I am unable to get it working.

Trial 1

<div id="htmlCont">
<p> $do开发者_Python百科cument.getElementById("htmlEditor").getElementsByTagName('html:textarea'); < p>
</div>
<a href="#TB_inline?height=300&width=400&inlineId=htmlCont&modal=true" class="thickbox">showPreview1< /a>

Trial 2

<div id="htmlCont">
<input type="hidden" id="htmlCon" value= document.getElementById("htmlEditor").getElementsByTagName('html:textarea'); />
</div>
<a href="#TB_inline?height=300&width=400&inlineId=htmlCont&modal=true" class="thickbox">showPreview2< /a>

Trial 3

<a href="#TB_inline?height=300&width=400&inlineId=<% request.getHtmlEditpane().getvalue() %>&modal=true" class="thickbox">showPreview3< /a>