Sessions are represented by an HttpSession object. You access a session by calling the HttpServletRequest.getSession() or HttpServletRequest.getSession(boolean) method of a request object. This method returns the current session associated with this request, or, if the request does not have a session, it creates one (unless boolean argument is false).

You can associate object-valued attributes with a session by name. Such attributes are accessible by any Web component that belongs to the same Web context and is handling a request that is part of the same session.

For example, you can save shopping cart as a session attribute. This allows the shopping cart to be saved between requests and also allows cooperating servlets to access the cart. Some servlet adds items to the cart; another servlet displays, deletes items from, and clears the cart; and next servlet retrieves the total cost of the items in the cart.

public class CashierServlet extends HttpServlet {
	public void doGet (HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse res)
			throws ServletException, IOException {

		// Get the user's session and shopping cart
		HttpSession session = request.getSession();
		ShoppingCart cart = (ShoppingCart) session.getAttribute("cart"); 
		...
		// Determine the total price of the user's books
		double total = cart.getTotal(); 
		...
	}
}
					

package javax.servlet.http;

public interface HttpSession {

	public java.lang.Object getAttribute(java.lang.String name);
	public java.util.Enumeration getAttributeNames();
	public void removeAttribute(java.lang.String name);
	public void setAttribute(java.lang.String name, java.lang.Object value);

}