HTTPSession Attribute

irlrobins

Hey all,

Doing some work on java servlets at the mo. As part of the application I set an attribute for the HTTPSession to determine the user type.

i.e.
[PHP]this.getSession.setAttribute("isSuperUser","false");[/PHP]

At various points in the application this attribute is used in if statements:

[PHP]if(this.getSession().getAttribute("isSuperUser").toString().equalsIgnoreCase("true")){[/PHP]

Now I find the above code a bit ugly/childish. But since I can't cast an Object to a boolean it's the only way I can do it at the moment. Anyone got an idea on how to do it better? Apart from an isSuperUser method?

[PHP]boolean isSuperUser(){
if(this.getSession().getAttribute("isSuperUser").toString().equalsIgnoreCase("true"))
return true
else
return false
}
[/PHP]

Thanks
R

lynchie

How about only setting the isSuperUser attribute if they are a superuser, and then use the absense of it to say they arent one...

when they log in

[PHP]
if(superUser)
request.getSession().setAttribute("superUser","true");
[/PHP]

Put this code in a helper class somewhere

[PHP]
public static boolean isSuperUser(HttpServletRequest request)
{
boolean super=false;

if(request.getSession().getAttribute("superUser")!=null)
super=true;

return super;
}
[/PHP]

There's also nothing stopping you putting a boolean into the session like in your original example

[PHP]
if(superUser)
request.getSession().setAttribute("superUser",Boolean.TRUE);
else
request.getSession().setAttribute("superUser",Boolean.FALSE);


if( ((Boolean)request.getSession().getAttribute("superUser")).booleanValue()==true)
[/PHP]

seamus

Don't know a whole lot about JSP in particular.

It does seem a little messy. As a push, and at a slight efficiency cost, you could pass a java.lang.Boolean object to the request. This is java's way of essentially allowing you to use primitives where objects should be used.

So

isSuperUser = new Boolean(false);
this.getSession.setAttribute("isSuperUser", isSuperUser)

.....
//When getting the value of this attribute
if(this.getSession().getAttribute("isSuperUser").booleanValue()){ 
//And so on

My Java's a little rusty, so I can't guarantee this will work.

irlrobins

Cheers guys. I had forgotten about using Boolean as opposed to boolean. That will make it a bit neater.

Thanks