Java Enterprise in a Nutshell, Second Edition

Name

HttpSession

Synopsis

The HttpSession interface allows web applications to track individual users across multiple HTTP requests. A session object is associated with each user, either by setting a client cookie or rewriting request URLs using the encodeURL() method of HttpServletResponse. Servlet 2.2 confined the scope of a session object to a particular web application, and replaced the getValue() and putValue() methods with the getAttribute() and setAttribute() methods.

When a session is first created, the isNew() method will return true for the first servlet to process the request. If the session information is lost (e.g., if the client does not support cookies) the container will create a new Session object for each subsequent request.

public interface HttpSession {
// Property Accessor Methods (by property name)
   public abstract java.util.Enumeration getAttributeNames();    // 2.2
   public abstract long getCreationTime();  
   public abstract String getId();  
   public abstract long getLastAccessedTime();  
   public abstract int getMaxInactiveInterval();                 // 2.1
   public abstract void setMaxInactiveInterval(int interval);    // 2.1
   public abstract boolean isNew();  
   public abstract ServletContext getServletContext();           // 2.3
                  // Public Instance Methods
   public abstract Object getAttribute( String name);            // 2.2
   public abstract void invalidate();  
   public abstract void removeAttribute( String name);           // 2.2
   public abstract void setAttribute(String name,                // 2.2
        Object value);  
// Deprecated Public Methods public ...