Can we use regular expressions in web.xml URL patterns?

Question

I am writing a filter to do a specific task but I am unable to set a specific url pattern to my filter. My filter mapping is as follows:

Answer 1

No, you can't use a regex there. According to the Java Servlet Specification v2.4 (section srv.11.1), the url-path is interpreted as follows:

• 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 con- text path and the path info is null.
• All other strings are used for exact matches only.

No regexes are allowed. Not even complicated wild-cards.