- All Known Subinterfaces:
HttpServletRequest
- All Known Implementing Classes:
HttpServletRequestWrapper
,ServletRequestWrapper
ServletRequest
object and passes it as an argument to the servlet's service
method.
A ServletRequest
object provides data including parameter name and values, attributes, and an input
stream. Interfaces that extend ServletRequest
can provide additional protocol-specific data (for
example, HTTP data is provided by HttpServletRequest
.
- See Also:
-
Method Summary
Modifier and TypeMethodDescriptionGets the AsyncContext that was created or reinitialized by the most recent invocation ofstartAsync()
orstartAsync(ServletRequest,ServletResponse)
on this request.getAttribute
(String name) Returns the value of the named attribute as anObject
, ornull
if no attribute of the given name exists.Returns anEnumeration
containing the names of the attributes available to this request.Returns the name of the character encoding used in the body of this request.int
Returns the length, in bytes, of the request body and made available by the input stream, or -1 if the length is not known or is greater than Integer.MAX_VALUE.long
Returns the length, in bytes, of the request body and made available by the input stream, or -1 if the length is not known.Returns the MIME type of the body of the request, ornull
if the type is not known.Gets the dispatcher type of this request.Retrieves the body of the request as binary data using aServletInputStream
.Returns the Internet Protocol (IP) address representing the interface on which the request was received.Returns the preferredLocale
that the client will accept content in, based on the Accept-Language header.Returns anEnumeration
ofLocale
objects indicating, in decreasing order starting with the preferred locale, the locales that are acceptable to the client based on the Accept-Language header.Returns the fully qualified name of the address returned bygetLocalAddr()
.int
Returns the Internet Protocol (IP) port number representing the interface on which the request was received.getParameter
(String name) Returns the value of a request parameter as aString
, ornull
if the parameter does not exist.Returns a java.util.Map of the parameters of this request.Returns anEnumeration
ofString
objects containing the names of the parameters contained in this request.String[]
getParameterValues
(String name) Returns an array ofString
objects containing all of the values the given request parameter has, ornull
if the parameter does not exist.Returns the name and version of the protocol the request uses in the form protocol/majorVersion.minorVersion, for example, HTTP/1.1.Obtain the request identifier for this request as defined by the protocol in use.Retrieves the body of the request as character data using aBufferedReader
.Returns the Internet Protocol (IP) of the remote end of the connection on which the request was received.Returns the fully qualified name of the address returned bygetRemoteAddr()
.int
Returns the Internet Protocol (IP) source port the remote end of the connection on which the request was received.getRequestDispatcher
(String path) Returns aRequestDispatcher
object that acts as a wrapper for the resource located at the given path.Obtain a unique (within the lifetime of the Servlet container) identifier string for this request.Returns the name of the scheme used to make this request, for example,http
,https
, orftp
.Returns the host name of the server to which the request was sent.int
Returns the port number to which the request was sent.Obtain details of the network connection to the Servlet container that is being used by this request.Gets the servlet context to which this ServletRequest was last dispatched.boolean
Checks if this request has been put into asynchronous mode.boolean
Checks if this request supports asynchronous operation.boolean
isSecure()
Returns a boolean indicating whether this request was made using a secure channel, such as HTTPS.void
removeAttribute
(String name) Removes an attribute from this request.void
setAttribute
(String name, Object o) Stores an attribute in this request.void
setCharacterEncoding
(String encoding) Overrides the name of the character encoding used in the body of this request.default void
setCharacterEncoding
(Charset encoding) Overrides the character encoding used in the body of this request.Puts this request into asynchronous mode, and initializes itsAsyncContext
with the original (unwrapped) ServletRequest and ServletResponse objects.startAsync
(ServletRequest servletRequest, ServletResponse servletResponse) Puts this request into asynchronous mode, and initializes itsAsyncContext
with the given request and response objects.
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Method Details
-
getAttribute
Returns the value of the named attribute as anObject
, ornull
if no attribute of the given name exists.Attributes can be set two ways. The servlet container may set attributes to make available custom information about a request. For example, for requests made using HTTPS, the attribute
jakarta.servlet.request.X509Certificate
can be used to retrieve information on the certificate of the client. Attributes can also be set programmatically usingsetAttribute(java.lang.String, java.lang.Object)
. This allows information to be embedded into a request before aRequestDispatcher
call.Attribute names should follow the same conventions as package names. The Jakarta Servlet specification reserves names matching
jakarta.*
.- Parameters:
name
- aString
specifying the name of the attribute- Returns:
- an
Object
containing the value of the attribute, ornull
if the attribute does not exist
-
getAttributeNames
Enumeration<String> getAttributeNames()Returns anEnumeration
containing the names of the attributes available to this request. This method returns an emptyEnumeration
if the request has no attributes available to it.- Returns:
- an
Enumeration
of strings containing the names of the request's attributes
-
getCharacterEncoding
String getCharacterEncoding()Returns the name of the character encoding used in the body of this request. This method returnsnull
if no request encoding character encoding has been specified. The following methods for specifying the request character encoding are consulted, in decreasing order of priority: per request, per web app (usingServletContext.setRequestCharacterEncoding(java.lang.String)
, deployment descriptor), and per container (for all web applications deployed in that container, using vendor specific configuration).- Returns:
- a
String
containing the name of the character encoding, ornull
if the request does not specify a character encoding
-
setCharacterEncoding
Overrides the name of the character encoding used in the body of this request. This method must be called prior to reading request parameters or reading input using getReader(). Otherwise, it has no effect.- Parameters:
encoding
-String
containing the name of the character encoding.- Throws:
UnsupportedEncodingException
- if this ServletRequest is still in a state where a character encoding may be set, but the specified encoding is invalid
-
setCharacterEncoding
Overrides the character encoding used in the body of this request. This method must be called prior to reading request parameters or reading input using getReader(). Otherwise, it has no effect.Implementations are strongly encouraged to override this default method and provide a more efficient implementation.
- Parameters:
encoding
-Charset
representing the character encoding.- Since:
- Servlet 6.1
-
getContentLength
int getContentLength()Returns the length, in bytes, of the request body and made available by the input stream, or -1 if the length is not known or is greater than Integer.MAX_VALUE.- Returns:
- an integer containing the length of the request body or -1 if the length is not known or is greater than Integer.MAX_VALUE.
-
getContentLengthLong
long getContentLengthLong()Returns the length, in bytes, of the request body and made available by the input stream, or -1 if the length is not known.- Returns:
- a long containing the length of the request body or -1L if the length is not known
- Since:
- Servlet 3.1
-
getContentType
String getContentType()Returns the MIME type of the body of the request, ornull
if the type is not known.- Returns:
- a
String
containing the name of the MIME type of the request, or null if the type is not known
-
getInputStream
Retrieves the body of the request as binary data using aServletInputStream
. Either this method orgetReader()
may be called to read the body, not both.- Returns:
- a
ServletInputStream
object containing the body of the request - Throws:
IllegalStateException
- if thegetReader()
method has already been called for this requestIOException
- if an input or output exception occurred
-
getParameter
Returns the value of a request parameter as aString
, ornull
if the parameter does not exist. Request parameters are extra information sent with the request. For HTTP servlets, parameters are contained in the query string or posted form data.You should only use this method when you are sure the parameter has only one value. If the parameter might have more than one value, use
getParameterValues(java.lang.String)
.If you use this method with a multivalued parameter, the value returned is equal to the first value in the array returned by
getParameterValues
.If the parameter data was sent in the request body, such as occurs with an HTTP POST request, then reading the body directly via
getInputStream()
orgetReader()
can interfere with the execution of this method.If not already parsed, calling this method will trigger the parsing of the query string, POSTed form data where the request body has content type is
application/x-www-form-urlencoded
and POSTed form data where the request body has content-typemultipart/form-data
and the Servlet is configured with aMultipartConfig
annotation or amultipart-config
element in the deployment descriptor.- Parameters:
name
- aString
specifying the name of the parameter- Returns:
- a
String
representing the single value of the parameter - Throws:
IllegalStateException
- if parameter parsing is triggered and a problem is encountered parsing the parameters including, but not limited to: invalid percent (%nn) encoding; invalid byte sequence for the specified character set; I/O errors reading the request body; and triggering a container defined limit related to parameter parsing. Containers may provide container specific options to handle some or all of these errors in an alternative manner that may include not throwing an exception.- See Also:
-
getParameterNames
Enumeration<String> getParameterNames()Returns anEnumeration
ofString
objects containing the names of the parameters contained in this request. If the request has no parameters, the method returns an emptyEnumeration
.If not already parsed, calling this method will trigger the parsing of the query string, POSTed form data where the request body has content type is
application/x-www-form-urlencoded
and POSTed form data where the request body has content-typemultipart/form-data
and the Servlet is configured with aMultipartConfig
annotation or amultipart-config
element in the deployment descriptor.- Returns:
- an
Enumeration
ofString
objects, eachString
containing the name of a request parameter; or an emptyEnumeration
if the request has no parameters - Throws:
IllegalStateException
- if parameter parsing is triggered and a problem is encountered parsing the parameters including, but not limited to: invalid percent (%nn) encoding; invalid byte sequence for the specified character set; I/O errors reading the request body; and triggering a container defined limit related to parameter parsing. Containers may provide container specific options to handle some or all of these errors in an alternative manner that may include not throwing an exception.
-
getParameterValues
Returns an array ofString
objects containing all of the values the given request parameter has, ornull
if the parameter does not exist.If the parameter has a single value, the array has a length of 1.
If not already parsed, calling this method will trigger the parsing of the query string, POSTed form data where the request body has content type is
application/x-www-form-urlencoded
and POSTed form data where the request body has content-typemultipart/form-data
and the Servlet is configured with aMultipartConfig
annotation or amultipart-config
element in the deployment descriptor.- Parameters:
name
- aString
containing the name of the parameter whose value is requested- Returns:
- an array of
String
objects containing the parameter's values - Throws:
IllegalStateException
- if parameter parsing is triggered and a problem is encountered parsing the parameters including, but not limited to: invalid percent (%nn) encoding; invalid byte sequence for the specified character set; I/O errors reading the request body; and triggering a container defined limit related to parameter parsing. Containers may provide container specific options to handle some or all of these errors in an alternative manner that may include not throwing an exception.- See Also:
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getParameterMap
Returns a java.util.Map of the parameters of this request.Request parameters are extra information sent with the request. For HTTP servlets, parameters are contained in the query string or posted form data.
If not already parsed, calling this method will trigger the parsing of the query string, POSTed form data where the request body has content type is
application/x-www-form-urlencoded
and POSTed form data where the request body has content-typemultipart/form-data
and the Servlet is configured with aMultipartConfig
annotation or amultipart-config
element in the deployment descriptor.- Returns:
- an immutable java.util.Map containing parameter names as keys and parameter values as map values. The keys in the parameter map are of type String. The values in the parameter map are of type String array.
- Throws:
IllegalStateException
- if parameter parsing is triggered and a problem is encountered parsing the parameters including, but not limited to: invalid percent (%nn) encoding; invalid byte sequence for the specified character set; I/O errors reading the request body; and triggering a container defined limit related to parameter parsing. Containers may provide container specific options to handle some or all of these errors in an alternative manner that may include not throwing an exception.
-
getProtocol
String getProtocol()Returns the name and version of the protocol the request uses in the form protocol/majorVersion.minorVersion, for example, HTTP/1.1.- Returns:
- a
String
containing the protocol name and version number
-
getScheme
String getScheme()Returns the name of the scheme used to make this request, for example,http
,https
, orftp
. Different schemes have different rules for constructing URLs, as noted in RFC 1738.- Returns:
- a
String
containing the name of the scheme used to make this request
-
getServerName
String getServerName()Returns the host name of the server to which the request was sent. It may be derived from a protocol specific mechanism, such as theHost
header, or the HTTP/2 authority, or RFC 7239, otherwise the resolved server name or the server IP address.- Returns:
- a
String
containing the name of the server
-
getServerPort
int getServerPort()Returns the port number to which the request was sent. It may be derived from a protocol specific mechanism, such as theHost
header, or HTTP authority, or RFC 7239, otherwise the server port where the client connection was accepted on.- Returns:
- an integer specifying the port number
-
getReader
Retrieves the body of the request as character data using aBufferedReader
. The reader translates the character data according to the character encoding used on the body. Either this method orgetInputStream()
may be called to read the body, not both.- Returns:
- a
BufferedReader
containing the body of the request - Throws:
UnsupportedEncodingException
- if the character set encoding used is not supported and the text cannot be decodedIllegalStateException
- ifgetInputStream()
method has been called on this requestIOException
- if an input or output exception occurred- See Also:
-
getRemoteAddr
String getRemoteAddr()Returns the Internet Protocol (IP) of the remote end of the connection on which the request was received. By default this is either the address of the client or last proxy that sent the request. In some cases a protocol specific mechanism, such as RFC 7239, may be used to obtain an address different to that of the actual TCP/IP connection.- Returns:
- a
String
containing an IP address
-
getRemoteHost
String getRemoteHost()Returns the fully qualified name of the address returned bygetRemoteAddr()
. If the engine cannot or chooses not to resolve the hostname (to improve performance), this method returns the IP address.- Returns:
- a
String
containing a fully qualified name or IP address.
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setAttribute
Stores an attribute in this request. Attributes are reset between requests. This method is most often used in conjunction withRequestDispatcher
.Attribute names should follow the same conventions as package names.
If the object passed in is null, the effect is the same as callingremoveAttribute(java.lang.String)
.
It is warned that when the request is dispatched from the servlet resides in a different web application byRequestDispatcher
, the object set by this method may not be correctly retrieved in the caller servlet.- Parameters:
name
- aString
specifying the name of the attributeo
- theObject
to be stored
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removeAttribute
Removes an attribute from this request. This method is not generally needed as attributes only persist as long as the request is being handled.Attribute names should follow the same conventions as package names. Names beginning with
jakarta.*
are reserved for use by the Jakarta Servlet specification.- Parameters:
name
- aString
specifying the name of the attribute to remove
-
getLocale
Locale getLocale()Returns the preferredLocale
that the client will accept content in, based on the Accept-Language header. If the client request doesn't provide an Accept-Language header, this method returns the default locale for the server.- Returns:
- the preferred
Locale
for the client
-
getLocales
Enumeration<Locale> getLocales()Returns anEnumeration
ofLocale
objects indicating, in decreasing order starting with the preferred locale, the locales that are acceptable to the client based on the Accept-Language header. If the client request doesn't provide an Accept-Language header, this method returns anEnumeration
containing oneLocale
, the default locale for the server.- Returns:
- an
Enumeration
of preferredLocale
objects for the client
-
isSecure
boolean isSecure()Returns a boolean indicating whether this request was made using a secure channel, such as HTTPS.- Returns:
- a boolean indicating if the request was made using a secure channel
-
getRequestDispatcher
Returns aRequestDispatcher
object that acts as a wrapper for the resource located at the given path. ARequestDispatcher
object can be used to forward a request to the resource or to include the resource in a response. The resource can be dynamic or static.The pathname specified may be relative, although it cannot extend outside the current servlet context. If the path begins with a "/" it is interpreted as relative to the current context root. This method returns
null
if the servlet container cannot return aRequestDispatcher
.Using a RequestDispatcher, requests may be dispatched to any part of the web application bypassing both implicit (no direct access to WEB-INF or META-INF) and explicit (defined by the web application) security constraints. Unsanitized user provided data must not be used to construct the path passed to the RequestDispatcher as it is very likely to create a security vulnerability in the application.
The difference between this method and
ServletContext.getRequestDispatcher(java.lang.String)
is that this method can take a relative path.- Parameters:
path
- aString
specifying the pathname to the resource. If it is relative, it must be relative against the current servlet.- Returns:
- a
RequestDispatcher
object that acts as a wrapper for the resource at the specified path, ornull
if the servlet container cannot return aRequestDispatcher
- See Also:
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getRemotePort
int getRemotePort()Returns the Internet Protocol (IP) source port the remote end of the connection on which the request was received. By default this is either the port of the client or last proxy that sent the request. In some cases, protocol specific mechanisms such as RFC 7239 may be used to obtain a port different to that of the actual TCP/IP connection.- Returns:
- an integer specifying the port number
- Since:
- Servlet 2.4
-
getLocalName
String getLocalName()Returns the fully qualified name of the address returned bygetLocalAddr()
. If the engine cannot or chooses not to resolve the hostname (to improve performance), this method returns the IP address.- Returns:
- a
String
containing the host name of the IP on which the request was received. - Since:
- Servlet 2.4
-
getLocalAddr
String getLocalAddr()Returns the Internet Protocol (IP) address representing the interface on which the request was received. In some cases a protocol specific mechanism, such as RFC 7239, may be used to obtain an address different to that of the actual TCP/IP connection.- Returns:
- a
String
containing an IP address. - Since:
- Servlet 2.4
-
getLocalPort
int getLocalPort()Returns the Internet Protocol (IP) port number representing the interface on which the request was received. In some cases, a protocol specific mechanism such as RFC 7239 may be used to obtain an address different to that of the actual TCP/IP connection.- Returns:
- an integer specifying a port number
- Since:
- Servlet 2.4
-
getServletContext
ServletContext getServletContext()Gets the servlet context to which this ServletRequest was last dispatched.- Returns:
- the servlet context to which this ServletRequest was last dispatched
- Since:
- Servlet 3.0
-
startAsync
Puts this request into asynchronous mode, and initializes itsAsyncContext
with the original (unwrapped) ServletRequest and ServletResponse objects.Calling this method will cause committal of the associated response to be delayed until
AsyncContext.complete()
is called on the returnedAsyncContext
, or the asynchronous operation has timed out.Calling
AsyncContext.hasOriginalRequestAndResponse()
on the returned AsyncContext will returntrue
. Any filters invoked in the outbound direction after this request was put into asynchronous mode may use this as an indication that any request and/or response wrappers that they added during their inbound invocation need not stay around for the duration of the asynchronous operation, and therefore any of their associated resources may be released.This method clears the list of
AsyncListener
instances (if any) that were registered with the AsyncContext returned by the previous call to one of the startAsync methods, after calling each AsyncListener at itsonStartAsync
method.Subsequent invocations of this method, or its overloaded variant, will return the same AsyncContext instance, reinitialized as appropriate.
- Returns:
- the (re)initialized AsyncContext
- Throws:
IllegalStateException
- if this request is within the scope of a filter or servlet that does not support asynchronous operations (that is,isAsyncSupported()
returns false), or if this method is called again without any asynchronous dispatch (resulting from one of theAsyncContext.dispatch()
methods), is called outside the scope of any such dispatch, or is called again within the scope of the same dispatch, or if the response has already been closed- Since:
- Servlet 3.0
- See Also:
-
startAsync
AsyncContext startAsync(ServletRequest servletRequest, ServletResponse servletResponse) throws IllegalStateException Puts this request into asynchronous mode, and initializes itsAsyncContext
with the given request and response objects.The ServletRequest and ServletResponse arguments must be the same instances, or instances of
ServletRequestWrapper
andServletResponseWrapper
that wrap them, that were passed to theservice
method of the Servlet or thedoFilter
method of the Filter, respectively, in whose scope this method is being called.Calling this method will cause committal of the associated response to be delayed until
AsyncContext.complete()
is called on the returnedAsyncContext
, or the asynchronous operation has timed out.Calling
AsyncContext.hasOriginalRequestAndResponse()
on the returned AsyncContext will returnfalse
, unless the passed in ServletRequest and ServletResponse arguments are the original ones or do not carry any application-provided wrappers. Any filters invoked in the outbound direction after this request was put into asynchronous mode may use this as an indication that some of the request and/or response wrappers that they added during their inbound invocation may need to stay in place for the duration of the asynchronous operation, and their associated resources may not be released. A ServletRequestWrapper applied during the inbound invocation of a filter may be released by the outbound invocation of the filter only if the givenservletRequest
, which is used to initialize the AsyncContext and will be returned by a call toAsyncContext.getRequest()
, does not contain said ServletRequestWrapper. The same holds true for ServletResponseWrapper instances.This method clears the list of
AsyncListener
instances (if any) that were registered with the AsyncContext returned by the previous call to one of the startAsync methods, after calling each AsyncListener at itsonStartAsync
method.Subsequent invocations of this method, or its zero-argument variant, will return the same AsyncContext instance, reinitialized as appropriate. If a call to this method is followed by a call to its zero-argument variant, the specified (and possibly wrapped) request and response objects will remain locked in on the returned AsyncContext.
- Parameters:
servletRequest
- the ServletRequest used to initialize the AsyncContextservletResponse
- the ServletResponse used to initialize the AsyncContext- Returns:
- the (re)initialized AsyncContext
- Throws:
IllegalStateException
- if this request is within the scope of a filter or servlet that does not support asynchronous operations (that is,isAsyncSupported()
returns false), or if this method is called again without any asynchronous dispatch (resulting from one of theAsyncContext.dispatch()
methods), is called outside the scope of any such dispatch, or is called again within the scope of the same dispatch, or if the response has already been closed- Since:
- Servlet 3.0
-
isAsyncStarted
boolean isAsyncStarted()Checks if this request has been put into asynchronous mode.A ServletRequest is put into asynchronous mode by calling
startAsync()
orstartAsync(ServletRequest,ServletResponse)
on it.This method returns false if this request was put into asynchronous mode, but has since been dispatched using one of the
AsyncContext.dispatch()
methods or released from asynchronous mode via a call toAsyncContext.complete()
. IfAsyncContext.dispatch()
orAsyncContext.complete()
is called before the container-initiated dispatch that calledstartAsync()
has returned to the container then this method must returntrue
until the container-initiated dispatch that calledstartAsync()
has returned to the container.- Returns:
- true if this request has been put into asynchronous mode, false otherwise
- Since:
- Servlet 3.0
-
isAsyncSupported
boolean isAsyncSupported()Checks if this request supports asynchronous operation.Asynchronous operation is disabled for this request if this request is within the scope of a filter or servlet that has not been annotated or flagged in the deployment descriptor as being able to support asynchronous handling.
- Returns:
- true if this request supports asynchronous operation, false otherwise
- Since:
- Servlet 3.0
-
getAsyncContext
AsyncContext getAsyncContext()Gets the AsyncContext that was created or reinitialized by the most recent invocation ofstartAsync()
orstartAsync(ServletRequest,ServletResponse)
on this request.- Returns:
- the AsyncContext that was created or reinitialized by the most recent invocation of
startAsync()
orstartAsync(ServletRequest,ServletResponse)
on this request - Throws:
IllegalStateException
- if this request has not been put into asynchronous mode, i.e., if neitherstartAsync()
norstartAsync(ServletRequest,ServletResponse)
has been called- Since:
- Servlet 3.0
-
getDispatcherType
DispatcherType getDispatcherType()Gets the dispatcher type of this request.The dispatcher type of a request is used by the container to select the filters that need to be applied to the request: Only filters with matching dispatcher type and url patterns will be applied.
Allowing a filter that has been configured for multiple dispatcher types to query a request for its dispatcher type allows the filter to process the request differently depending on its dispatcher type.
The initial dispatcher type of a request is defined as
DispatcherType.REQUEST
. The dispatcher type of a request dispatched viaRequestDispatcher.forward(ServletRequest, ServletResponse)
orRequestDispatcher.include(ServletRequest, ServletResponse)
is given asDispatcherType.FORWARD
orDispatcherType.INCLUDE
, respectively, while the dispatcher type of an asynchronous request dispatched via one of theAsyncContext.dispatch()
methods is given asDispatcherType.ASYNC
. Finally, the dispatcher type of a request dispatched to an error page by the container's error handling mechanism is given asDispatcherType.ERROR
.- Returns:
- the dispatcher type of this request
- Since:
- Servlet 3.0
- See Also:
-
getRequestId
String getRequestId()Obtain a unique (within the lifetime of the Servlet container) identifier string for this request.There is no defined format for this string. The format is implementation dependent.
- Returns:
- A unique identifier for the request
- Since:
- Servlet 6.0
-
getProtocolRequestId
String getProtocolRequestId()Obtain the request identifier for this request as defined by the protocol in use. Note that some protocols do not define such an identifier.Examples of protocol provided request identifiers include:
- HTTP 1.x
- None, so the empty string should be returned
- HTTP 2
- The stream identifier
- HTTP 3
- The stream identifier
- AJP
- None, so the empty string should be returned
- Returns:
- The request identifier if one is defined, otherwise an empty string
- Since:
- Servlet 6.0
-
getServletConnection
ServletConnection getServletConnection()Obtain details of the network connection to the Servlet container that is being used by this request. The information presented may differ from information presented elsewhere in the Servlet API as raw information is presented without adjustments for, example, use of reverse proxies that may be applied elsewhere in the Servlet API.- Returns:
- The network connection details.
- Since:
- Servlet 6.0
-