Accessing an HttpServletRequest from inside an AXIS2 module

I am implementing AXIS2 services in my web application.  Our client's 
production boxes are a bit flaky, so I want a heads up when performance 
degraded.  Specifically:

- request comes into my AXIS2 service
- measure the time that the request takes
- if the time is greater than X, log an error

So I wrote an AXIS2 module like this:

     public class PerformanceHandler extends AbstractHandler implements 
Handler {
	protected Logger logger = null;

	public PerformanceHandler() {
		logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger( this.getClass() );
	}

	public InvocationResponse invoke( MessageContext msgContext ) throws 
AxisFault {
		HttpServletRequest r = ( HttpServletRequest )msgContext.getProperty( 
HTTPConstants.MC_HTTP_SERVLETREQUEST );
		if( msgContext.getFLOW() == MessageContext.IN_FLOW || 
msgContext.getFLOW() == MessageContext.IN_FAULT_FLOW ) {
			// incoming request
			Date timeIn = new Date( System.currentTimeMillis() );
			r.setAttribute( this.getClass().getName() + ".timeIn", timeIn );
			if( logger.isDebugEnabled() ) {
				logger.debug( "Request " + r.toString()  + " started processing at " 
+ timeIn );
			}
		} else {
			// outgoing response
			Date timeIn = ( Date )r.getAttribute( this.getClass().getName() + 
".timeIn" );
			Date timeOut = new Date( System.currentTimeMillis() );
			if( logger.isDebugEnabled() ) {
				logger.debug( "Request " + r.toString()  + " finished processing at 
" + timeOut );
			}
			long delta = timeOut.getTime() - timeIn.getTime();
			if( delta > 300 ) { // todo: parameterize the delta threshold
				logger.error( "Request " + r.toString() + " took " + delta + "ms to 
process." );
			}
		}

		return InvocationResponse.CONTINUE;
	}
     }

After that, I edited the module.xml, axis2.xml appropriately, created 
the *.mar file and ran the app.


However, it seems that

     HttpServletRequest r = ( HttpServletRequest 
)msgContext.getProperty( HTTPConstants.MC_HTTP_SERVLETREQUEST )

is null.  That was unexpected.


So my questions are:

- How can I access the servlet request in an AXIS2 module?
- If this is not allowed, what's the alternative for me to track the 
time between request starting processing and ending processing?
- I should be using some other existing AXIS2 functionality that can 
give me the same kind of result?

Many thanks in advance,

-- 
Dave Cherkassky
   DJiNN Software Inc
   VP of Software Development