The use of the javax.servlet.ServletRequestListener may disrupt WebSphere eXtremeScale HTTP session management functionality

Problem

The WebSphere eXtreme Scale HTTP session management component relies on being the first filter in the servlet filter chain and, on the ability to wrapper the incoming servlet request. In this way, all requests will go through eXtreme Scale so that it can process the request. The ServletRequestListener (introduced in Java Servlet specification Version 2.4+) allows an application to obtain access to a servlet request before the request comes into the scope of the web application, and before it enters the first servlet or filter of the web application. If the ServletRequestListener were to cache the ServletRequest and use it later (e.g. in a servlet or filter), then this request would not be a wrappered request by eXtreme scale and would bypass all eXtreme Scale processing. An example of where this problem occurs is in the Spring framework request context listener: org.springframework.web.context.request.RequestContextListener. Using this listener will disrupt eXtreme Scale HTTP session management functionality. The work-around for this issue is to use the Spring framework filter: org.springframework.web.filter.RequestContextFilter This provides the same functionality but through the use of a servlet filter.