From what I can see after reading the JNLP 7 specification, it appears what you want can't be done. The asterisk can only represent text data, not multiple XML elements.
In your situation, I would make the main
method capable of doing its own parsing of a single argument so it can be treated as multiple values, using a custom separator. Something like this:
public static void main(String[] args) {
if (args.length == 2 && args[0].equals("--args")) {
args = args[1].split(";;");
}
// Continue as normal
}
This allows the template to contain:
<application-desc main-class="com.example.app.Main">
<argument>--args</argument>
<argument>*</argument>
</application-desc>
And your the actual .jnlp file could contain something like:
<application-desc main-class="com.example.app.Main">
<argument>--args</argument>
<argument>files.txt;;29;;true;;1384212567908</argument>
</application-desc>