Accessing application, session, request objects

The framework provides several access helpers to access Session, Application, Request scopes.

Accessing from Java

All the JEE scope attribute maps can be accessed via ActionContext.

Accessing servlet scopes

Map attr = (Map) ActionContext.getContext().get("attr");
attr.put("myId",myProp);

Map application = (Map) ActionContext.getContext().get("application");
application.put("myId",myProp);

Map session = (Map) ActionContext.getContext().get("session");
session.put("myId", myProp);

Map request = (Map) ActionContext.getContext().get("request");
request.put("myId",myProp);

Do not use ActionContext.getContext() in the constructor of your Action class. The values may not be set up, and the call may return null for getSession().

We can also access the HttpServletRequest and HttpServletResponse objects themselves through ServletActionContext. In general this isn't recommended as it will tie our action to the servlet specification.

Setting session attribute through session object

ServletActionContext.getRequest().getSession().put("myId", myProp);

Implementing ServletRequestAware or ServletResponseAware, combined with the "servletConfig" interceptor, is an alternative way to access the request and response objects, with the same caveat.

Accessing from the view (JSP, FreeMarker, etc.)

Request and session attributes are accessed via OGNL using the #session and #request stack values.

The #attr stack value will search the javax.servlet.jsp.PageContext for the specified key. If the PageContext doean't exist, it will search the request, session, and application scopes, in that order.

Accessing the Session or Request from a JSP

<s:property value="#session.myId" />

<s:property value="#request.myId" />

<s:property value="#attr.myId" />