UrlRewriteFilter
A Java Web Filter for any compliant web application servers (such as Tomcat, JBoss, Jetty or Resin), which allows you to rewrite URLs before they get to your code. It is a very powerful tool just like Apache's mod_rewrite.
Install
1
<dependency>
<groupId>org.tuckey</groupId>
<artifactId>urlrewritefilter</artifactId>
<version>5.1.3</version>
</dependency>
2
To WEB-INF/web.xml add (near the top above any servlet mappings):
(see filter parameters for more options)
<filter>
<filter-name>UrlRewriteFilter</filter-name>
<filter-class>org.tuckey.web.filters.urlrewrite.UrlRewriteFilter</filter-class>
</filter>
<filter-mapping>
<filter-name>UrlRewriteFilter</filter-name>
<url-pattern>/*</url-pattern>
<dispatcher>REQUEST</dispatcher>
<dispatcher>FORWARD</dispatcher>
</filter-mapping>
3
Add urlrewrite.xml
in WEB-INF (src/main/webapp/WEB-INF/ for Maven users)
After restarting you can visit http://127.0.0.1:8080/rewrite-status (or whatever the address of your local webapp and context) to see output (note: this page is only viewable from localhost).
After restarting you can visit http://127.0.0.1:8080/rewrite-status (or whatever the address of your local webapp and context) to see output (note: this page is only viewable from localhost).
Documentation
What is URL Rewriting?
URL rewriting is very common with Apache Web Server (see mod_rewrite's rewriting guide) but has not been possible in most java web application servers. The main things it is used for are:
- URL Tidyness / URL Abstraction - keep URLs tidy irrespective of the underlying technology or framework (JSP, Servlet, Struts etc).
- Browser Detection - Allows you to rewrite URLs based on request HTTP headers (such as user-agent or charset).
- Date based rewriting - Allows you to forward or redirect to other URL's based on the date/time (good for planned outages).
- Moved content - enable a graceful move of content or even a change in CMS.
- Tiny/Friendly URL's (i.e. blah.com/latest can be redirected to blah.com/download/ver1.2.46.2/setup.exe)
- A Servlet mapping engine (see Method Invocation)
4.0 User Manual
5.1 User Manual
Articles
This filter has been mentioned at:
- Transparently Feedburning Pebble with UrlRewriteFilter
- heute-morgen.de (parametrized View State with JSF)
- Erik Isaksson's Blog (sample rules)
- Magician (use with forumnuke, in Chinese)
- Russell Beattie's Notebook
- Some small tricks for UrlRewriteFilter
- More...