Swagger includePatterns()

Question

Swagger Configuration:

@EnableSwagger
@Configuration
public class SwaggerConfig {

  private SpringSwaggerConfig springSwaggerConfig;

  @Autowired
  public void setSpringSwaggerConfig(SpringSwaggerConfig springSwaggerConfig) {
    this.springSwaggerConfig = springSwaggerConfig;
  }

  @Bean
  public SwaggerSpringMvcPlugin swaggerSpringMvcPlugin() {

    return new SwaggerSpringMvcPlugin(springSwaggerConfig)
            .swaggerGroup("sample-app")
            .includePatterns(
                    "/account/*"
            )
            .apiInfo(apiInfo())
            .build();
  }

  private ApiInfo apiInfo() {
    ApiInfo apiInfo = new ApiInfo(
            "sample-app",
            "sample-app doc",
            "",
            "support@sample-app",
            "",
            ""
    );
    return apiInfo;
  }

Rest Controller

@RestController
@RequestMapping(value = "/account")
@Api(value = "Change Account details", description = "")
public class ChangeAccountController {

@ApiOperation(value = "Change address")
    @RequestMapping(value = "/addresschange", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    public String addressChange(HttpServletRequest httpRequest, HttpServletResponse httpResponse,
            @Valid @RequestBody User user) throws ServletException, IOException {
        // logic and return something!          
    }
}

Reference: Some of the information has been referred from here: http ://java.dzone.com/articles/how-configure-swagger-generate

Problem/Question:

In the SwaggerConfig.java, in the includePatterns() method, when I give the pattern as /account/* the API doesn't appear in the Swagger output page, whereas, if I include the pattern as /account/.* it appears. Why? what is the difference between /account/* and /account/.* in this use-case?

Update:

Another use-case

@RestController
@RequestMapping(value = "/score")


@ApiOperation(value = "All score", notes = "")
@RequestMapping(value = "", method = RequestMethod.GET)
public @ResponseBody ActionResult allScores(HttpServletRequest httpRequest,
            HttpServletResponse httpResponse) {

}

If I add the pattern as /score/*, then the API is appearing in Swagger. I need not put the pattern as /score/.*

Answer 1

The difference is that if you write /account/* it means take any string that starts with "/account" and then has at least 0 occurrences of character '/' and the second pattern matches string starting with "/account/" followed by at least 0 occurrences of any character.

For more details see e.g. http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/regex/Pattern.html