Using rwsf::Attribute
Objects within the HydraExpress Agent exchange information using attributes. Each request object, session object, and context object contains a collection of attributes. Servlets and filters use these attribute collections to transfer and store information between requests.
Each attribute is an instance of
rwsf::Attribute. Class
rwsf::Attribute is a container that holds a single object. The contained object must provide a copy constructor and assignment operator that do not change the semantics or validity of the original object. The contained object must also have a default constructor. To copy an object into an attribute, use
operator<<(). Conversely, to copy an object out of an attribute, use
operator>>().
The following code sample copies a string into a servlet attribute, then copies the string from the attribute to a different string:
std::string source("Servlets in C++");
rwsf::Attribute stringAttr;
stringAttr << source; // 1
source = "HydraExpress"; // 2
std::string destination;
stringAttr >> destination; // 3
At the end of the sample, destination and stringAttr each contain a separate copy of the string "Servlets in C++", while source contains the string "HydraExpress".
There are two important limitations to
rwsf::Attribute. First, the compiler cannot always detect attempts to extract an attribute into an object of an incompatible type. In these cases, the extraction operator throws
rwsf::Exception when the type of the destination does not match the type of the object stored in the attribute.
Second, an attribute can store only a single object. An attribute cannot store an array or a string literal. However, an attribute can store an object that encapsulates the same data. For example, the code below stores a std::string instead of a literal character string:
rwsf::Attribute stringAttr;
stringAttr << std::string("Your string here.");
