req.setAttribute problem

I have a very interesting problem. Let me post some code first and then I will explain.

import java.io.* ;
import javax.servlet.* ;
import javax.servlet.http.* ;
import java.util.* ;
public class LoginAction extends ActionBase
{
    public void process( HttpServletRequest req , HttpServletResponse res )
        throws Exception
    {
        String userName = req.getParameter( "userName" ).toLowerCase();
        String password = req.getParameter( "password" ).toLowerCase();
        
        String sqlStatement = "SELECT USERID, PASSWORD, USERTYPE FROM USERS WHERE USERID = \'" + userName + "\'" ;
        
        try
        {
            Iterator results = DBAccess.getInformation( sqlStatement ).listIterator();
            req.setAttribute( "iterator" , results );
            String userID = "" ;
            String pass = "" ;
            String accessLevel = "" ;
            
            while( results.hasNext() )
            {
                userID = (String)results.next();
                req.setAttribute( "user is " , userID );
                pass = (String)results.next();
                req.setAttribute( "password is " , pass );
                accessLevel = (String)results.next();
                req.setAttribute( "access is " , accessLevel );
            }
            
            if( userName.equals( userID ) && password.equals( pass ) )
            {
                ActiveUsers.add( userName , accessLevel );
                HttpSession currentSession = req.getSession();
                currentSession.setAttribute( "userID" , userName );
                req.setAttribute( "url" , "url here" );
            }
            else
            {
                ServerLog.log( this , "process" , "invalid login by " + userName );
                req.setAttribute( "invalidLogin" , "The user name or password was invalid" );
                req.setAttribute( "url" , "url here" );
            }
        }
        catch( Exception exc )
        {
            ServerLog.log( this , "process" , "DBAccess threw SQL error -- " + exc );
            req.setAttribute( "url" , "url here" );
            throw exc ;
        }
    }
    
    
    public void forward( HttpServletRequest req , HttpServletResponse res )
        throws ServletException, IOException
    {
        String url = null ;
        try
        {
            url = (String)req.getAttribute( "url" );
        }
        catch( Exception e )
        {
            ServerLog.log( this , "forward" , "url value not a string" );
        }
        
        if( url == null )
        {
            url = "url here" ;
            ServerLog.log( this , "forward" , "url missing" ); 
        }
        
        ServerLog.log( this , "forward" , req.getAttribute( "userID" ) + " has logged out." );
        res.sendRedirect( url );
    }
}

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
 <HEAD>
  <TITLE>Alumni Database Login</TITLE>
 </HEAD>
  <BODY BGCOLOR="FFFFFF" TEXT="Navy" LINK="red" VLINK="navy">
  
        
   <H1 ALIGN="center"><FONT FACE="Arial">Gwinnett Technical College Alumni Database</FONT></H1>
   <P></P>
       <TABLE CELLPADDING=3 CELLSPACING=3 ALIGN="CENTER">
         <TR>
           <TD><IMG SRC="1_gtc_logo.gif" alt="logophoto" height="130" width="250"></TD>
           <TD>Welcome to the Gwinnett Technical College<BR> Student Alumni Database.
               Here you can see where<BR> former students are working and find out <BR>
               what companies hire people that share your skills.
        </TR>
       </TABLE>
   <P ALIGN="center"><FONT COLOR="red"><TD><A HREF="dataSurvey1.jsp">Click Here to Register Now.</A><BR>If you have already registered, type in your user 
                     login and password and click "enter login".</FONT><BR>
   </P> 
   <P ALIGN="center">
      <FORM NAME="login" ACTION="controller" METHOD="POST">
           <INPUT TYPE="hidden" NAME="action" VALUE="login">
           User Login <INPUT TYPE="text" name="userName" size="15"><BR>
           Password  <INPUT TYPE="password" name="password" size="15"><BR><BR>
           <INPUT TYPE="submit" VALUE="Enter Login" NAME="submitLogin" STYLE="color:Navy; font:12pt Arial;background:white">
        </P>
    <TABLE ALIGN="left">
      <TR><IMG SRC="sampleFlag.jpg" alt="flag" height="70" width="60"></TR>
      <TR><A HREF="teamLiberty.jsp">Created by Team Liberty</A></TR>
    <TABLE ALIGN="right">
      <TR><A HREF="mailto:matthew_a_phillips@yahoo.com">Contact Webmaster</A></TR>
     </TABLE>
    </TABLE>
    <P ALIGN="center">
    <%= request.getAttribute( "invalidLogin" ) %>
    </P>
    
  </BODY>
</HTML>

Here is the problem. In the jsp page, reqest.getAttribute( "invalidLogin" ) is always null. I know the logic is going through that path because the url is set properly and the log is being hit. Does anyone have any ideas on this?

Here is the problem. In the jsp page, reqest.getAttribute( "invalidLogin" ) is always null. I know the logic is going through that path because the url is set properly and the log is being hit. Does anyone have any ideas on this?

You can get arround this by using the RequestDispatchers forward() method.
That way the current request object is forwarded and the requierd attribute is accessible on the forwarded page.

Andreas

That's because the forward(req, res) method of RequestDispatcher takes the request and the response of the current HTTP request to the JSP. It is like forwarding the same Http request.
On the other hand, sendRedirect(urlStr) actually sends a completely new Http request to the server (to the new URL, the JSP in this case) and it abandons all parameters in the current HttpServletRequest object.
So, no wonder, you get the null value for the parameter in the JSP.
There is no way you can pass the current request parameters to the redirected URL, unless you put them in the session. But that's a lil clumsy way to do it ;-)
Pritam

Thanks for the info. I am really learning a lot on this project and from all of you.