Servlet Development Guide : PART III Programming : Chapter 6 The Servlet API : Reading Initialization Parameters
Reading Initialization Parameters
The servlet container provides the initialization parameters for a servlet or filter within the configuration object the container passes to the init method. The configuration object provides agetInitParameter() function that takes a std::string name and returns the contents of the initialization parameter by that name. A filter uses the configuration object to access initialization parameters. A servlet uses the convenience functions provided by rwsf::GenericServlet to access initialization parameters directly.
The code sample below shows a servlet retrieving the initialization parameters from the servlet element shown in “Configuration File Example.”
 
std::string greeting = getInitParameter("greeting");
std::string fontsize = getInitParameter("fontsize");
If the instance definition does not contain an initialization parameter with the name provided, the getInitParameter() function returns an empty string.