public static String getAttribute(HttpServletRequest request, String name) {
        return getAttribute(request, name, false);
    }
Returns an attribute as a string.

@param request the HttpServletRequest object, known as "request" in a JSP page.
@param name the name of the parameter you want to get
@return the value of the parameter or null if the parameter was not
     found or if the parameter is a zero-length string.
xmppserver/src/main/java/org/jivesoftware/util/ParamUtils.java