Legacy Knowledge Base
Published Sep. 10, 2025

Attribute in portlet session cannot be found from theme

Written By

Ricardo Couso

How To articles are not official guidelines or officially supported documentation. They are community-contributed content and may not always reflect the latest updates to Liferay DXP. We welcome your feedback to improve How To articles!

While we make every effort to ensure this Knowledge Base is accurate, it may not always reflect the most recent updates or official guidelines.We appreciate your understanding and encourage you to reach out with any feedback or concerns.

Legacy Article

You are viewing an article from our legacy "FastTrack" publication program, made available for informational purposes. Articles in this program were published without a requirement for independent editing or verification and are provided"as is" without guarantee.

Before using any information from this article, independently verify its suitability for your situation and project.

Issue

  • Set an attribute in a portlet's session, like this:
    @Override
    public void render(
            RenderRequest renderRequest, RenderResponse renderResponse)
        throws IOException, PortletException {
    
        HttpServletRequest httpServletRequest = PortalUtil.getHttpServletRequest(renderRequest);
        HttpSession httpSession = httpServletRequest.getSession();
        httpSession.setAttribute("myAttributeKey", "myAttributeValue");
        
        super.render(renderRequest, renderResponse);
    }
  • Try to recover the value "myAttributeValue" in a custom theme's portal_normal.ftl (or some other template), like this:
    ${(request.session.getAttribute("myAttributeKey"))!"null"}
  • The value cannot be found (so null is printed) when the theme is rendered in a page where the portlet is deployed.
  • Listing all attributes shows the attribute key with a long prefix:
    equinox.http.${my-portlet-package-name}myAttributeKey

Environment

  • Liferay DXP 7.3, 7.4

Resolution

  • In most circumstances, the prefix equinox.http.${my-portlet-package-name} is seamlessly added and removed when setting and getting an attribute.
  • One way to have this behavior in this situation as well is to use the original servlet request in the portlet, like this:
    HttpServletRequest httpServletRequest = PortalUtil.getHttpServletRequest(renderRequest);
    HttpServletRequest originalServletRequest = PortalUtil.getOriginalServletRequest(httpServletRequest);
    HttpSession httpSession = originalServletRequest.getSession();
    httpSession.setAttribute("myAttributeKey", "myAttributeValue");
Did this article resolve your issue ?

Legacy Knowledge Base