<url-pattern>

This tag specifies a single URL pattern for a <servlet-mapping> element or <web-resource-collection> element.

In <servlet-mapping>, this tag defines the URL patterns which will trigger the servlet.

In <web-resource-collection>, this tag defines the URL patterns which will be protected by the security constraint.

The tag is somewhat restrictive, because only a few pattern types are possible. However, for servlet mappings, more complex patterns can be set up by mapping all requests to another servlet which provides better parsing.

Examples:

• *.do - a file extension pattern, matching any URL that ends in .do, eg: Struts uses this to map action.do to its action servlet.
• /content/* - a path pattern, matching any URL that begins with /content/, eg: /content/Product/41
• /MyServlet - a specific pattern, matching only the URL /MyServlet
• /servlet/MyServlet - another specific pattern, matching /servlet/MyServlet