URL Path Wildcard

Category: URL

Purpose: Identifies requests by whether the requested URL points to a relative path that matches a pattern defined by a wildcardThis type of value supports the use of special characters to establish a pattern. For example, specifying an asterisk within this type of value will match one or more characters. value. This relative path includes the filename of the requested assetA file is the most commonly known example of an asset. Refers to any collection of data that is typically stored as a single unit on a storage unit (e.g., disk drive). An example of an asset that is not physically stored on a disk drive occurs when dynamically generated content is not cached..

Choosing the right URL path match condition.

Key information:

• The Relative to option determines whether the URL comparison will start before or after the content access pointThis URL segment of a CDN URL identifies where the request should be directed. This relative path starts directly after the CDN hostname. The proper syntax for a content access point is "/yyAN," where "yy" stands for the origin identifier and "AN" stands for a customer account number. A content access point for a customer origin also includes a directory that identifies it..

  What is a content access point?

  The content access point is the portion of the path that appears between the CDN hostname and the relative path to the requested asset (e.g., /800001/CustomerOrigin). It identifies a location by server type (e.g., CDN or customer origin) and your customer account number.

  The available values for this option are explained below.

  • Root: Indicates that the URL comparison will start directly after the CDN hostname.

    Example:

    http://wpc.0001.edgecastcdn.net/800001/myorigin/myfolder/index.htm

  • Origin: Indicates that the URL comparison will start after the content access point (e.g., /000001 or /800001/myorigin).

    Example:

    http://wpc.0001.edgecastcdn.net/800001/myorigin/myfolder/index.htm

• An edge CNAME URL will be rewritten to a CDN URL prior to URL comparison.

  Example:

  Both of the following URLs point to the same asset and therefore have the same URL path.

  CDN URL:

  http://wpc.0001.edgecastcdn.net/800001/CustomerOrigin/path/asset.htm

  Edge CNAME URL:

  http://my.domain.com/path/asset.htm

  URL path (Relative to Root):

  /800001/CustomerOrigin/path/asset.htm

  URL path (Relative to Origin):

  /path/asset.htm

• The value(s) associated with this match condition may be defined using any combination of numbers, letters, and/or symbols. This type of value also supports the use of special characters.

  Each specified value may contain one or more asterisks. Each asterisk will match a sequence of one or more characters.

• For the purpose of satisfying this condition, query strings in the URL are ignored.
• The case-sensitivity of URL comparisons is determined by the Ignore Case option.

• Replace spaces in the URL path with %20.

• Matching against URLs that contain non-US-ASCII characters requires that you specify encoded Unicode characters (e.g., %E3%81%93).

  • Encode all Unicode characters before setting the Value option. This match condition only accepts encoded Unicode characters.

    Example:

    You should include the following characters instead of こんにちは when defining this match condition's value:

    %E3%81%93%E3%82%93%E3%81%AB%E3%81%A1%E3%81%AF

  • The majority of user agents (e.g., web browsers) encode non-US-ASCII characters in the request URL before submitting the request to our CDN. By default, our CDN service then decodes those characters before the comparison for this match condition is performed.

  • Use the Encoded option to determine whether your match value, as defined in the Value option, will be decoded prior to comparison with the request's URL path.

    • URL Normalization: You must set this option to Yes when a URL normalization customization has been applied to your traffic. This configuration ensures that your match value remains encoded.

    • Standard: Use the default configuration (i.e., No) which allows our service to decode your match value.

• Specify multiple URL paths by delimiting each one with a single space.

  Example:

  /marketing/asset.* /sales/*.htm
• This match condition is satisfied when the relative URL path, including filename, is either an exact match (i.e., match) or does not match one of the specified patterns.

Sample Scenarios

Sample scenarios are provided below.

The following sample configurations assume that this match condition is satisfied when a request matches one of the specified values.

Edgecast CDN