[java] How to use session in JSP pages to get information?

I have a JSP page used for editing some user's info. When a user logins to the website, I keep the information in the session, then in my edit page I try the following:

<%! String username=session.getAttribute("username"); %>
<form action="editinfo" method="post">
    <table>
        <tr>
            <td>Username: </td><td> <input type="text" value="<%=username %>" /> </td>
        </tr>
    </table>
</form>

but it gives error saying session cannot be resolved. What can I do about it?

The reason why you are getting the compilation error is, you are trying to access the session in declaration block (<%! %>) where it is not available. All the implicit objects of jsp are available in service method only. Code of declarative blocks goes outside the service method.

I'd advice you to use EL. It is a simplified approach.

${sessionScope.username} would give you the desired output.

<%! String username=(String)session.getAttribute("username"); %>
form action="editinfo" method="post">

    <table>
        <tr>
            <td>Username: </td><td> <input type="text" value="<%=username %>" /> </td>
        </tr>

    </table>

add <%! String username=(String)session.getAttribute("username"); %>

Suppose you want to use, say ID in any other webpage then you can do it by following code snippet :

String id=(String)session.getAttribute("uid");

Here uid is the attribute in which you have stored the ID earlier. You can set it by:

session.setAttribute("uid",id);

You can directly use (String)session.getAttribute("username"); inside scriptlet tag ie <% %>.

Use

<% String username = (String)request.getSession().getAttribute(...); %>

Note that your use of <%! ... %> is translated to class-level, but request is only available in the service() method of the translated servlet.

See how JSP code is translated to a servlet.