How to set a parameter in a HttpServletRequest?

Question

I am using a javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest to implement a web application.

I have no problem to get the parameter of a request using the getParamete

Answer 1

The missing getParameterMap override ended up being a real problem for me. So this is what I ended up with:

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequestWrapper;

/***
 * Request wrapper enabling the update of a request-parameter.
 * 
 * @author E.K. de Lang
 *
 */
final class HttpServletRequestReplaceParameterWrapper
    extends HttpServletRequestWrapper
{

    private final Map<String, String[]> keyValues;

    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    HttpServletRequestReplaceParameterWrapper(HttpServletRequest request, String key, String value)
    {
        super(request);

        keyValues = new HashMap<String, String[]>();
        keyValues.putAll(request.getParameterMap());
        // Can override the values in the request
        keyValues.put(key, new String[] { value });

    }

    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    HttpServletRequestReplaceParameterWrapper(HttpServletRequest request, Map<String, String> additionalRequestParameters)
    {
        super(request);
        keyValues = new HashMap<String, String[]>();
        keyValues.putAll(request.getParameterMap());
        for (Map.Entry<String, String> entry : additionalRequestParameters.entrySet()) {
            keyValues.put(entry.getKey(), new String[] { entry.getValue() });
        }

    }

    @Override
    public String getParameter(String name)
    {
        if (keyValues.containsKey(name)) {
            String[] strings = keyValues.get(name);
            if (strings == null || strings.length == 0) {
                return null;
            }
            else {
                return strings[0];
            }
        }
        else {
            // Just in case the request has some tricks of it's own.
            return super.getParameter(name);
        }
    }

    @Override
    public String[] getParameterValues(String name)
    {
        String[] value = this.keyValues.get(name);
        if (value == null) {
            // Just in case the request has some tricks of it's own.
            return super.getParameterValues(name);
        }
        else {
            return value;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Map<String, String[]> getParameterMap()
    {
        return this.keyValues;
    }

}

Answer 2

Sorry, but why not use the following construction:

request.getParameterMap().put(parameterName, new String[] {parameterValue});

Answer 3

The most upvoted solution generally works but for Spring and/or Spring Boot, the values will not wire to parameters in controller methods annotated with @RequestParam unless you specifically implemented getParameterValues(). I combined the solution(s) here and from this blog:

import java.util.*;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest;
import javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequestWrapper;

public class MutableHttpRequest extends HttpServletRequestWrapper {

    private final Map<String, String[]> mutableParams = new HashMap<>();

    public MutableHttpRequest(final HttpServletRequest request) {
        super(request);
    }

    public MutableHttpRequest addParameter(String name, String value) {
        if (value != null)
            mutableParams.put(name, new String[] { value });

        return this;
    }

    @Override
    public String getParameter(final String name) {
        String[] values = getParameterMap().get(name);

        return Arrays.stream(values)
                .findFirst()
                .orElse(super.getParameter(name));
    }

    @Override
    public Map<String, String[]> getParameterMap() {
        Map<String, String[]> allParameters = new HashMap<>();
        allParameters.putAll(super.getParameterMap());
        allParameters.putAll(mutableParams);

        return Collections.unmodifiableMap(allParameters);
    }

    @Override
    public Enumeration<String> getParameterNames() {
        return Collections.enumeration(getParameterMap().keySet());
    }

    @Override
    public String[] getParameterValues(final String name) {
        return getParameterMap().get(name);
    }
}

note that this code is not super-optimized but it works.

Answer 4

From your question, I think what you are trying to do is to store something (an object, a string...) to foward it then to another servlet, using RequestDispatcher(). To do this you don't need to set a paramater but an attribute using

void setAttribute(String name, Object o);

and then

Object getAttribute(String name);

Answer 5

If you really want to do this, create an HttpServletRequestWrapper.

public class AddableHttpRequest extends HttpServletRequestWrapper {

   private HashMap params = new HashMap();

   public AddableingHttpRequest(HttpServletRequest request) {
           super(request);
   }

   public String getParameter(String name) {
           // if we added one, return that one
           if ( params.get( name ) != null ) {
                 return params.get( name );
           }
           // otherwise return what's in the original request
           HttpServletRequest req = (HttpServletRequest) super.getRequest();
           return validate( name, req.getParameter( name ) );
   }

   public void addParameter( String name, String value ) {
           params.put( name, value );
   }

}

Answer 6

You can't, not using the standard API. HttpServletRequest represent a request received by the server, and so adding new parameters is not a valid option (as far as the API is concerned).

You could in principle implement a subclass of HttpServletRequestWrapper which wraps the original request, and intercepts the getParameter() methods, and pass the wrapped request on when you forward.

If you go this route, you should use a Filter to replace your HttpServletRequest with a HttpServletRequestWrapper:

public void doFilter(ServletRequest servletRequest, ServletResponse servletResponse, FilterChain filterChain) throws IOException, ServletException {
    if (servletRequest instanceof HttpServletRequest) {
        HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest) servletRequest;
        // Check wether the current request needs to be able to support the body to be read multiple times
        if (MULTI_READ_HTTP_METHODS.contains(request.getMethod())) {
            // Override current HttpServletRequest with custom implementation
            filterChain.doFilter(new HttpServletRequestWrapper(request), servletResponse);
            return;
        }
    }
    filterChain.doFilter(servletRequest, servletResponse);
}