A NullPointerException is being thrown if name == null when calling Http...

A NullPointerException is being thrown if name == null when calling HttpServletRequest getParameter(). The problem with the original code was that the null check was performed AFTER the null-sensitive section of the code, causing problems when run on Linux (not sure why Windows isn't affected - the input values when run on Windows are identical to those on Linux (i.e. name is null)). Regardless, the null check should be placed before the null-sensitive code.