Help,Using Sesstion variables

Question

I want to put some variables on the session scope, and I want to access them through EL Expression, I have a login page which I use to log on my application, I want the username to be on the session scope without exposing the packing of the login page to the session.
I tried the following:
1)I made another page 'GeneralSettings.jspx' on the sesstion scope which will stay in the background and function as a container for my session variables, and I made a static input field 'username' and two methods to set and get the value, when I use the set method in the login page, I get a null pointer exception error, looks like I can't set the value of a field on a page without being in the page first.
2) I used a managed class bean class, with the static String variable 'username', this one worked using the setter and getter, but I can't use the EL Expressions to access that variable.
3) I tried to use the managed properties of a managed bean, but I don't know how to set their values.
would anyone help me please, I am a little confused right now (and soon I will start pulling my hair).
Regards,
ahmad Esbita

Answer 1

Dear Frank,
I am currently using the first option but with a little modification, I made the variables and the methods static, I think thats the reason that they didn't show at the EL expression builder, when I remove the static word it works very well , but the username var must be on the 'login' backing class and exposed as a session class.
And since I am not putting the 'login' class on session scope, I need the username in another session class ('GeneralSettings') and change the username from the 'login' class using the static setters and getters of the 'GeneralSettings' class, and thats why I did use the static methods in the first place, to be referenced from the 'login' class.
my code goes as follows:
public class GeneralSesttings {
private static String username = null;
public static void setUsername(String s){
username = s;
public static String getUsername(){
return username;
public class Login {
public String cmb_ok_action() {
GeneralSettings.setUsername("Scott");
thank you very much for replying to me, and any hints that you can give me on that well be highly appreciated.
thanks man,
Ahmad Esbita