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JAX-RS - Regex to match All URI paths using @Path and @PathParam

[Last Updated: Nov 8, 2025]

JAX-RS JAVA EE 

This example shows how to match multiple path segments by using regex in @Path template.

We can use regex [.+] or [.*] to match any characters in @Path (It is also referred as wildcard matching). That means, it will match all URIs. In following example we are matching anything between pathA and pathZ. 

package com.logicbig.example;

import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.PathParam;

@Path("/")
public class MyResource {
    @GET
    @Path("pathA/{var:.+}/pathZ")
    public String test(@PathParam("var") String path){
        return  path;
    }
}

The above pattern will match anything like /pathA/a/b/c/d/pathZ

If we don't use any boundaries and just @Path({var:.+}) then that will match all URIs 

package com.logicbig.example;

import javax.ws.rs.ApplicationPath;
import javax.ws.rs.core.Application;
import java.util.Arrays;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.Set;

@ApplicationPath("/")
public class MyRestApp extends Application {
    @Override
    public Set<Class<?>> getClasses() {
        return new HashSet<>(Arrays.asList(MyResource.class));
    }
}

pom.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"
         xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.logicbig.example</groupId>
    <artifactId>jaxrs-regex-all-uris</artifactId>
    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <packaging>war</packaging>

    <properties>
        <jersey.version>2.25.1</jersey.version>
    </properties>

    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.core</groupId>
            <artifactId>jersey-server</artifactId>
            <version>${jersey.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.containers</groupId>
            <artifactId>jersey-container-servlet</artifactId>
            <version>${jersey.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.media</groupId>
            <artifactId>jersey-media-moxy</artifactId>
            <version>${jersey.version}</version>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.glassfish.jersey.test-framework.providers</groupId>
            <artifactId>jersey-test-framework-provider-jdk-http</artifactId>
            <version>${jersey.version}</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>
    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <failOnMissingWebXml>false</failOnMissingWebXml>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
                <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>3.5.1</version>
                <configuration>
                    <source>1.8</source>
                    <target>1.8</target>
                    <encoding>UTF-8</encoding>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.apache.tomcat.maven</groupId>
                <artifactId>tomcat7-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <version>2.2</version>
                <configuration>
                    <path>/</path>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>
</project>
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