Stateful session bean destroying instance variables?

Question

I'm trying to use a stateful session bean as some kind of login controller and to maintain the login id and access level across JSPs and HTMLs so that once logged in, all the JSPs can obtain the login name of the current user (String) and his access level (int).
I use the login.jsp to login and it successfully reports logging in with the correct access level retrieved from database. However, if I go to another JSP (testlogin.jsp), these 2 EJB instance variables are always destroyed and set to null and 0 when I access them again.
What am I missing that my stateful session bean is not saving these instance variables? Do I need to put them in some serializable value objects (create a help VO class?)
I suspected that on different JSP, I call the MemberControllerHome.create() method, it creates a new instance or something but if I don't use the create method how do I get a handle to MemberController at all?
MemberControllerBean.java
public class MemberControllerBean implements SessionBean {
     //initialize in ejbCreate.
     private MemberHome memberHome;
     SessionContext context;
     //Member currentLogin;
     //Current Login
     private String loginID;
     private int accessLevel;
     // Constructor
     public MemberControllerBean() {}
...some code in between...
public void login(String id, String password){
          try{
               Member member = null;
               member = memberHome.findByPrimaryKey(id);
               if(member.getMPassword().equals(password)){
                    this.loginID = member.getMID();
                    this.accessLevel = member.getMAccessLevel();
               else{
                    throw new EJBException("Login failed. Invalid member ID and/or password.");
          } catch (FinderException ex) {
               throw new EJBException("Login failed. Invalid member ID and/or password.");
     public void logout(){
          this.loginID = null;
          this.accessLevel = 4;
     public String getLoginID(){
          return this.loginID;
     public int getLoginAccessLevel(){
          return this.accessLevel;
login.jsp
String mID = request.getParameter("mID");
String mPassword = request.getParameter("mPassword");
out.println("20:" + mID + ":" + mPassword);
if(mID != null && mPassword != null){
     out.println("22:" + mID + ":" + mPassword);
     try{
          InitialContext ic = new InitialContext();
          MemberControllerHome home = (MemberControllerHome) ic.lookup("java:comp/env/ejb/MemberController");
          MemberController mc = home.create();
          out.println("26:Logging in as " + mID + " with " + mPassword);
          mc.login(mID, mPassword);
          out.println("28:" + mc.getLoginID() + "logged in successfully at level " +
               mc.getLoginAccessLevel() + ".");
     } catch (NamingException ex) {
          out.println("java:comp/env/ejb/MemberController not found.");
     } catch (EJBException ex) {
          out.println(ex.getMessage());
     } catch (Exception ex) {
          out.println(ex.getMessage());
testlogin.jsp
<%
try{
     InitialContext ic = new InitialContext();
     MemberControllerHome home = (MemberControllerHome) ic.lookup("java:comp/env/ejb/MemberController");
     MemberController mc = home.create();
     out.println("You are logged in as <b>" + mc.getLoginID() +
          "</b> at level <b>" + mc.getLoginAccessLevel() + "</b>.");
} catch (NamingException ex) {
     out.println("java:comp/env/ejb/MemberController not found.");
} catch (EJBException ex) {
     out.println(ex.getMessage());
} catch (Exception ex) {
     out.println(ex.getMessage());
%>

Answer 1

The key to the problem is that in testlogin.jsp a new stateful session bean is created. The new bean instance of course doesn't know the log-in information you stored in the old session bean. That is why the method returns null and 0 when called.
There are couple of ways to solve the issue. The easiest solution is to store the bean instance created in Login.jsp in the jsp's implicit HttpSession object. Because login.jsp and testlogin.jsp share the same session, the bean instance can be easily stored and retrieved.
Here is the code you need to have:
1. in login.jsp
session.setAttribute("MemberControllerBeanInstance", mc);
2. in testlogin.jsp
MemberController mc =
(MemberController) session.getAttribute("MemberControllerBeanInstance");
Hope it helps.