URI Template variable containing a path?

Question

I have a question about URI template variables.

I need to manage an URI with the form:

http://netlocation:port/application_path/{variable}

the variable can be a path itself, i.e. something like

this/variable/is/a/path

so that the complete URI appears to be

http://netlocation:port/application_path/this/variable/is/a/path

how can I manage that?

Answer 1

Use the "+" operator in order to avoid escaping the "/" character:

http://netlocation:port/application_path/{+foo}

You can try on URI Template Parser Online

Answer 2

You could use query parameters and just encode the path variable in the standard way:

http://netlocation:port/application_path?path=%2Fthis%2Fvariable%2Fisapath

Answer 3

Have you looked at http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/3.0.x/javadoc-api/org/springframework/web/util/UriTemplate.html ?