Not getting url variable with JSP

Question

I am writing an online text editor for school. I have been able to save a file with a custom name, so that is not the problem. With an HTML form I have, it submits the text of the TextArea into a file specified by the user, then set the url to be blah.org/text.jsp?status=gen. Later in the code, I have the program write the file if the variable status == gen, otherwise do nothing. I am not able to create the file when I click submit, and I am thinking it has something to do with me getting the variable in the URL. Here is my code:

    /* Set the "user" variable to the "user" attribute assigned to the session */
String user = (String)session.getAttribute("user");
String status = request.getParameter("status");
    /* Get the name of the file */
String name = request.getParameter("name");
    /* Set the path of the file */
String path = "C:/userFiles/" + user + "/" + name + ".txt";
/* Get the text in a TextArea */
String value = request.getParameter("textArea");
    /* If there isn't a session, tell the user to Register/Log In */
if (null == session.getAttribute("user")) {
out.println("Please Register/Log-In to continue!");
    if (status == "gen") {
        try {
            FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(path);
            PrintWriter pw = new PrintWriter(fos);
            pw.println(value);
            pw.close();
            fos.close();
    }
    catch (Exception e) {
        out.println("<p>Exception Caught!");
    }
} else {
out.println("Error");
}
}

and the form:

<form name="form1" method="POST" action="text.jsp?status=gen">
<textarea cols="50" rows="30" name="textArea"></textarea>
<center>Name: <input type="text" name="name" value="Don't put a .ext"> <input type="submit" value="Save" class="button"></center>
other code here </form>

Answer 1

Replace

if (status == "gen") {

with

if ( status.equals("gen") ) {

or even better

if ( "gen".equals(status) ) {

Your first statement does Object equality and not String equality. Therefore, it always returns false.

Answer 2

You're comparing Strings with == instead of comparing them with .equals() . == compares the strings are the same object instance, not if they contain the same characters.

Make sure to read the IO tutorial . Streams should always be closed in a finally block, or you should use the Java 7 try-with-resources construct.