Grails: Setting URL mapping priorities

Question

I sometimes come across a situation where I'm trying to set URLMappings as such:

    /** -> ContentController
    /static/$image/$imageNumber -> ResourcesController

Then when I visit /static/image/13 it will often hit the /** instead of the

/static/*/*

How do I tell Spring / Grails to rather try and match the other one first?

In Grails it _should_ always prefer `/static/*/*` over `/**` as the mapping with fewer `**` wildcards is considered higher priority. — Ian Roberts, Oct 23 '12 at 21:57

doelleri · Answer 1 · 2012-10-23T19:17:45.020

~~URL mappings are hit in the order they are declared, so put your catch all /** last.~~

EDIT: This answer tickled at the back of my mind, and I recalled something I read on the mailing list a while back. Back in Grails 1.1 or so, URLMappings were evaluated in the order declared. Now, however, URLMapping matching is slightly more complex. The URLMappings will try to return the best match by comparing the number of wildcards, static tokens, and finally number of constraints. You can see this in the source.

Since URL mapping order no longer matters, it must be something else (although I find listing them in rough order makes it easier to read through them). It looks like the second fragment should actually be a static token. I'd try /static/image/$imageNumber.

I'll try it out first thing tomorrow! Thanks! – sparkyspider Oct 23 '12 at 18:51 — sparkyspider, Oct 23 '12 at 18:51

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Nov 21 '12 at 10:45

Turns out that Grails will go from more specific to least specific, as long as:

You don't have syntax errors in your URLMappings and

Sometimes you need to restart grails for it to correctly take effect.

"/other-test/$testname" { // Fired for "/other-test/hi-there/"
    controller="test"
}

"/**" { // fired for "/something-else"
    controller="test"
}

Grails: Setting URL mapping priorities

2 Answers2