Big mistake. BIG mistake. HUGE!
Firstly, the symbol
request cannot be resolved because it is an implicit variable only available to the body (service() method to be specific) of the
JSP.
Secondly, creating declarations like this
destroys the thread-safety of your JSP. Since the declaration creates an instance variable, and there is only one instance of the
servlet created on behalf of the JSP, every single request for the JSP will
share the value of the variable. Obviously not a good thing!
[ February 14, 2006: Message edited by: Bear Bibeault ]