Storing Data in Application Module Session

Question

I'd like to store information about the current user in the session of the application module. I've been examining the example in the ADF Guide for Forms Developers in Chapter 9, but would like to implement it in a more generic way, in an overridden ApplicationModuleImpl class similar to what is documented in Chapter 28.
What I'd like to accomplish is:
A generic setter method similar to:
public void setVariable(String name, String value) {
Hashtable userdata = getDBTransaction().getSession.getUserData();
if (userdata == null) {
userdata = new Hashtable();
userdata.put(name.toUpperCase(),value.toUpperCase());
and a getter method similar to
public String getVariable(String name) {
Hashtable userdata = getDBTransaction().getSession.getUserData();
//null handling omitted
return (userdata.get(name.toUpperCase()).toString());
I can test this with calls like:
setVariable("myName","myValue");
System.out.println("myName="+getVariable("myName"));
I don't get any errors, but the output is:
myName=
Apparently it isn't either storing the value, or it isn't retrieving it correctly. I have several questions about this:
1. What am I doing wrong here? It 'looks' like it should work, but isn't.
2. Is this an appropriate approach to this problem?
3. Will there need to be any special handling on passivation/activation? Or since it's data stored in the session, will the AM handle that for me?

Answer 1

In further testing I can see that data is getting stored in my hashtable, and if I retrieve it directly in the setVariable method, the retrieval works. What I've discovered though, is that the code:
getDBTransaction().getSession.getUserData();
is returning null, in both the getter and setter methods. I am testing this using the application module tester (right click on the AM, click test). Is this default behavior, i.e. should the above line of code return a null value when using the tester?
Relatedly, am I going to have to write a front-end for this to test against? (please say it isn't so!)