[CODE]
cookieArray = request.getCookies();
 if (cookieArray != null) {
  for (int i = 0; i < cookieArray.length; i++) {
   if
(cookieArray[i].getName().trim().toLowerCase().equals(ChatGlobals.CHAT_COOKIE_NAME.trim().toLowerCase())
&&
       cookieArray[i].getValue() != null
      ) {
    cookie = cookieArray[i].getValue();                                // GET COOKIE
    break;
   }
  }
 }

// AT THIS POINT I HAVE cookie VERIFIED VIA out.println(cookie)

MessageProcessor mp = null;

 // SEND MESSAGE DIRECTLY TO MessageProcessor AVOIDING ANY ISSUES WITH
URL DATA SCRAPING INVOLVING QUERY STRINGS
 if (hasSubmittedMessage && send.length() > 0) {
  try {      //  USING NEW VERSION OF URLEncoder.encode() THAT REQUIRES
try{} BLOCK DUE TO NEW 2ND PARAMETER OF ENC-TYPE
   request.setAttribute("message", (Object)URLEncoder.encode(message,
"UTF-8"));
   request.setAttribute("nickname", (Object)URLEncoder.encode(cookie,
"UTF-8"));
   out.println("message = " + request.getParameter("message") + " and
nickname = " + request.getParameter("nickname"));
   mp = new MessageProcessor(request, response);
   mp.process();
  } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException uee) {
   errorMsg = "Error involving message submittal: " + uee.toString();
  } catch (Exception e) {
   errorMsg += "Unknown error: " + e.toString();
  }
 } else if (hasSubmittedMessage && quit.length() > 0) {
  try {      //  USING NEW VERSION OF URLEncoder.encode() THAT REQUIRES
try{} BLOCK DUE TO NEW 2ND PARAMETER OF ENC-TYPE

   // HTMLRetriever WORKS HERE INSTEAD OF USING request.setAttribute()
I HAVE NO IDEA WHY
   //retriever = new HTMLRetriever(ChatGlobals.SERVLET_SELF +
"/ppowell.ChatServlet?message=" +
   //                              URLEncoder.encode("/q", "UTF-8") +
"&nickname=" +
   //                              URLEncoder.encode(cookie, "UTF-8")
  //                              );
  // String junk = retriever.getHTML();
   request.setAttribute("message", (Object)URLEncoder.encode("testing
1 2 3", "UTF-8"));
   request.setAttribute("nickname", (Object)URLEncoder.encode(cookie,
"UTF-8"));
   out.println("message = " + request.getParameter("message") + " and
nickname = " + request.getParameter("nickname"));
   mp = new MessageProcessor(request, response);
   mp.process();
  } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException uee) {
   errorMsg += "Error involving message submittal: " + uee.toString();
  } catch (Exception e) {
   errorMsg += "Unknown error: " + e.toString();
  }
 }

[/CODE]

When viewing the contents via out and you click the "Send" button, you
get this:

[quote]message = blah blah blah and nickname = null[/quote]

When viewing the contents via out and you click the "Quit" button, you
get this:

[quote]message = and nickname = null[/quote]

How is this possible when I'm setting request.setAttribute()
beforehand? Is there something else I need to do to alter or add values
to HttpServletRequest request before submitting it as parameter to
MessageProcessor?

Please advise, thanx
Phil