Storing an "indicator" to control behaviour during submit()

Question

Hello,
I'm developing a JSF page in which I need to access some data from a database and use the data to control the GUI (components) behaviour as well as behaviour during submit().
I have a backing bean for my JSF page and bound a number of GUI components to properties on the backing bean. I also have getters and setters for those properties.
In the getter for one of the properties (bound to a GUI component -- in fact, an HtmlOutputLabel), I did the following:
-- read data from the database (this is successful)
-- got the HttpSession object from the FacesContext: session = (HttpSession)FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getSession(false);
-- set an attribute in the session object: session.setAttribute("firstReviewDone", new Boolean(firstReviewComplete));

Answer 1

I don't see anything obviously wrong in what you posted; however I would make a couple of suggestions.
First, don't do work in getters. The getters will be invoked a number of times as JSF works through the lifecycle. If you need to initialize something it is generally better to use a @PostConstruct method.
Second, rather than using the session directly, the JSF approach would be to use a session scoped bean. Make a simple bean that holds your attribute (I'm sure you will add others later) and configure it as a session bean. Then inject it into your original bean. (You might find that in this approach it makes more sense to do the @PostConstruct in the new bean.)
Incorporate the above or not, but if at the end of that (potentially null) process it still isn't working I would suggest posting the code here and not just snippets and descriptions.