sitemesh 3 can't get session information when decorating the root context path of my webapp

[sirj]

I have a webapp using sitemesh3, here is the sitemesh3.xml: 

<sitemesh>

  <mapping>

  <path>/mystuff/*</path>

  <decorator>/WEB-INF/decorators/en-layouts/mystuff.jsp</decorator>

  <decorator>/WEB-INF/decorators/en-layouts/header.jsp</decorator>

  </mapping>

  <mapping>

  <path>/*</path>

  <decorator>/WEB-INF/decorators/en-layouts/page.jsp</decorator>

  <decorator>/WEB-INF/decorators/en-layouts/header.jsp</decorator>

  </mapping>

  <mapping path="/js/*" exclude="true"/>

  <mapping path="/css/*" exclude="true"/>

  <mapping path="/images/*" exclude="true"/>

  <mapping path="/bootstrap/*" exclude="true"/>

</sitemesh>

I'm using spring security with this webapp. in the header.jsp, there is some code:

<%

Authentication a = SecurityContextHolder.getContext().getAuthentication();

UserAccount u = null;

if(a != null && a.getPrincipal() != null && a.getPrincipal() instanceof UserAccount){

u = (UserAccount)a.getPrincipal();

request.setAttribute("account", u);

}

%>

and some html:

<p class="navbar-text pull-right">Logged in as <a href="#">${account.nickname }</a></p>

for above JSP code, all pages except http://www.mysite.com/ work very well. when accessing the context root url (/) of the app, variable a is null, i can't get it. when accessing any other pages like http://www.mysite.com/offer/39 or http://www.mysite/mystuff/, all pages are good.

I don't know if my question is clear for you, could you anybody please give me some tips help me out?

thank you in advance.

Regards,

Jason

[Joe Walnes]

Hi Jason

I suspect this is an issue with how the security Filter is configured. If you post your web.xml it may give us more insight.

thanks

-Joe