Sessions are, just as their named, only valid for the current session. They
don't survive until the next time the user comes to your site. What you
probably want to do is use a Cookie to store that information in the User's
browser and retrieve it the next time they come to the site instead of
asking them for it.
(*Chris*)
----- Original Message -----
From: Lame, John <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Friday, April 30, 1999 9:24 AM
Subject: problem with HttpSession
> I want to save a customers personal information (email, name, phone)
> in an HttpSession object so that they don't have to type it in the
> next time they come to my page. I'm doing everything in one servlet
> (e.g. the servlet generates the form and is also the action for the form).
> I use a hidden form variable to know which state I'm in (e.g. should I
> print or process the form).
>
> Everything works just fine if the customer doesn't shut down their
> browser. In other words, if a customer comes to the form, fills out
> their name, submits the form, and then goes back to the form
> some time later, their name will be pre-filled. However, if the
> customer has shut down their browser at any point, then their
> personal information is lost.
>
> Here's the relevant code (using first_name as an example).
>
> === BEGIN ===
> // Get the session. I do this every time and before anything
else.
> HttpSession the_session = req.getSession(true);
> if ( <printing the form>) {
> ...
> // If first_name is non-null, the "first_name" field will
be
> pre-filled with this value.
> String first_name =
> (String)the_session.getValue("first_name");
> ...
> }
> else { // We must be processing a submitted form
> // the_first_name is the value of the "first_name" field
or
> the empty string.
> // Note that I do this before sending output to the
client.
> the_session.putValue("first_name", the_first_name);
> }
> === END ===
>
> Now I've set up my browser (Netscape Communicator 4.51) to warn me when a
> server
> attempts to write a cookie and my servlet does generate a warning. And I
> know that my browser has accepted the cookie because the first_name field
> does
> get pre-filled when I return. However, when I shut down my browser, it
> appears that
> no data is ever written to my cookies.txt file and, sure enough, when I
> bring up
> a new browser, the servlet attempts to write a brand new cookie rather
than
> grabbing an old one.
>
> What am I doing wrong?
> John
>
>
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