You can also use a bean (request scoped is suggested) and directly access the context by way of the FacesContext.
You can get the HttpServletRequest and HttpServletResposne objects by using the following code:
HttpServletRequest req = (HttpServletRequest)FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getRequest();
HttpServletResponse res = (HttpServletResponse)FacesContext.getCurrentInstance().getExternalContext().getResponse();
After this, you can access individual parameters via getParameter(paramName)
or access the full map via getParameterMap()
req
object
The reason I suggest a request scoped bean is that you can use these during initialization (worst case scenario being the constructor. Most frameworks give you some place to do code at bean initialization time) and they will be done as your request comes in.
It is, however, a bit of a hack. ;) You may want to look into seeing if there is a JSF Acegi module that will allow you to get access to the variables you need.