attributeRemoved not being called after session.invalidate

Question

I have a object that implements the HttpSessionAttributeListener, and as you'd expect it does some work when certain objects are added, replaced and removed from the session.

I thought that the if the session is ended [session.invalidate()], each object from that session is removed from the session as so the attributeRemoved() method would be called? I'm not seeing that behavour and wondered if I dreamt it.

To ensure I can be notified when the session is invalidated do I have to implement HttpSessionBindingListener on the object i'm interested in? or is there another way.

Answer 1

When you call session.invalidate(), you're just informing the container that the session should no longer be used. It is not, however, obliged to do anything else, such as removing the session attributes. It will do that eventually, but there's no guarantee that it will do it immediately, and your application shouldn't rely on it happening in a timely manner.

Answer 2

HttpSessionListener, implement the method sessionDestroyed