Question

Based on Java Servlet Specification Version 3.0:

In the Web application deployment descriptor, the following syntax is used to define mappings:

A string beginning with a ‘/’ character and ending with ‘/*’ suffix is used for path mapping.

A string beginning with ‘*.’ prefix is used as an extension mapping.

A string containing only the ‘/’ character indicates the “default” servlet of the application.

All other strings are used for exact matches only.

so, I have next questions:

1. How I can process this URL pattern: “/foo/bar/*.jsp”?

2. What principal difference between ‘/*’ and ‘/’?

Answer 1

1. Use less restrictive pattern (for example, /foo/bar/*) and apply additional restrictions programmatically.

2. / handles request only if its URL doesn’t match any other mapping, whereas /* follows normal mapping precendence rules.
   For example, if you map front controller of your application as /* you won’t be able to render JSP pages, because /* takes precendence over built-in JSP servlet mapped to *.jsp.