Trouble with web.xml url pattern

Question

In my web.xml I have URL pattern for servlet like this:

<url-pattern>/*/myservice</url-pattern>

So I want to call it using blablabla/myservice also as anyWord/myservice .

But it doesn't work. It work only if I call it using this URL: /*/myservice (with asterisk in URL).

Answer 1

You can't do that. According to the Servlet 2.5 Specification (and things aren't that different in other levels of the specification), chapter SRV.11.2:

• A string beginning with a / character and ending with a /* suffix is used for path mapping.
• A string beginning with a *. prefix is used as an extension mapping.
• A string containing only the / character indicates the "default" servlet of the application. In this case the servlet path is the request URI minus the context path and the path info is null.
• All other strings are used for exact matches only.

Your case falls under the 4th bullet, so exact mapping is used.

To circumvent that, use a mapping of / (third case). Map all requests to go to a particular servlet, and have that servlet re-route requests to handlers of some sort (either other servlets, or some custom classes).

For example:

<url-pattern>/</url-pattern>
<servlet-name>MyServlet</servlet-name>

And then, within MyServlet 's code, inspect the URL that you received in the request (using request.getPathInfo() ) and use the value to forward the request to other handlers.

Answer 2

You could use a filter while your url pattern is /* and inside the filter decide which redirection you required.

<filter>
<display-name>MyFilter</display-name>
<filter-name>MyFilter</filter-name>
<filter-class>com.MyfilterClass</filter-class>

<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>MyFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
</filter-mapping>

</filter>

Answer 3

What about two ULR-mapping sections?

  <servlet-mapping>  
    <servlet-name>ModifyMemberSVL</servlet-name>  
    <url-pattern>/ModifyMember</url-pattern>  
  </servlet-mapping>  
  <servlet-mapping>  
    <servlet-name>ModifyMemberSVL</servlet-name>  
    <url-pattern>/Administration/Add_Member/ModifyMember</url-pattern>  
  </servlet-mapping>