http-servlet-request-requesturi-pathinfo
The Difference between getRequestURI and getPathInfo in HttpServletRequest
1. Overview
In this quick tutorial, we’ll discuss the difference between
getRequestURI() and getPathInfo() in the HttpServletRequest class.
2. Difference between getRequestURI() and getPathInfo()
The function getRequestURI() returns the complete requested URI.
This includes the deployment folder and servlet-mapping string. It will
also return all extra path information.
The function getPathInfo() only returns the path passed to the
servlet. If there is no extra path information passed, this function
will return null.
In other words, if we deploy our application in our web server’s root,
and we request the servlet mapped to “/”, both getRequestURI() and
getPathInfo() will return the same string. Otherwise, we’ll get
different values.
3. Example Request
In order to get a better understanding of the HttpServletRequest
methods, let’s say we have a
servlet which can be
accessed via this URL:
http://localhost:8080/deploy-folder/servlet-mappingThis request will hit the “servlet-mapping” servlet in a web application
deployed inside “deploy-folder”. Therefore, if we call getRequestURI()
and getPathInfo() for this request, they will return different
strings.
Let’s create a simple doGet() servlet method:
public void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws IOException {
PrintWriter writer = response.getWriter();
if ("getPathInfo".equals(request.getParameter("function")) {
writer.println(request.getPathInfo());
} else if ("getRequestURI".equals(request.getParameter("function")) {
writer.println(request.getRequestURI());
}
writer.flush();
}Firstly, let’s take a look at the output of the servlet for
getRequestURI requests fetched by
curl command:
curl http://localhost:8080/deploy-folder/servlet-mapping/request-path?function=getRequestURI/deploy-folder/servlet-mapping/request-pathSimilarly, let’s take a look at the output of the servlet for
getPathInfo:
curl http://localhost:8080/deploy-folder/servlet-mapping/request-path?function=getPathInfo/request-path4. Conclusion
In this article, we’ve explained the difference between
getRequestURI() and getPathInfo() in HttpServletRequest. We also
demonstrated it with an example servlet and request.
As always, the servlet implemented to test all these functions is
available
over on
Github.
