|-- Context Path --|-- Servlet Path -|--Path Info--|
http://www.myserver.com /mywebapp /helloServlet /hello
|-------- Request URI ----------------------------|
Identifying the servlet path
To match a request URI with a servlet, the servlet container follows a simple algorithm.
Once it identifies the context path, if any, it evaluates the remaining part of the
request URI with the servlet mappings specified in the deployment descriptor, in the
following order. If it finds a match at any step, it does not take the next step.
1 The container tries to match the request URI to a servlet mapping. If it finds a
match, the complete request URI (except the context path) is the servlet path. In
this case, the path info is null.
2 It tries to recursively match the longest path by stepping down the request URI
path tree a directory at a time, using the / character as a path separator, and determining
if there is a match with a servlet. If there is a match, the matching part
of the request URI is the servlet path and the remaining part is the path info.
3 If the last node of the request URI contains an extension (.jsp, for example),
the servlet container tries to match it to a servlet that handles requests for the
specified extension. In this case, the complete request URI is the servlet path
and the path info is null.
4 If the container is still unable to find a match, it will forward the request to the
default servlet. If there is no default servlet, it will send an error message indicating
the servlet was not found.
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>RedServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/red/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>RedServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/red/red/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>RedBlueServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/red/blue/*</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>BlueServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/blue/</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>GreenServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>/green</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>ColorServlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.col</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
Request URI Servlet Used Servlet Path Path Info
/colorapp/red RedServlet /red null
/colorapp/red/ RedServlet /red /
/colorapp/red/aaa RedServlet /red /aaa
/colorapp/red/blue/aa RedBlueServlet /red/blue /aa
/colorapp/red/red/aaa RedServlet /red/red /aaa
/colorapp/aa.col ColorServlet /aa.col null
/colorapp/hello/aa.col ColorServlet /hello/aa.col null
/colorapp/red/aa.col RedServlet /red /aa.col
/colorapp/blue NONE(Error message)
/colorapp/hello/blue/ NONE(Error message)
/colorapp/blue/mydir NONE(Error message)
/colorapp/blue/dir/aa.col ColorServlet /blue/dir/aa.col null
/colorapp/green GreenServlet /green null