Question: I use a filter to check URL patterns for the logged in user.

But I have many URL patterns I need to filter.

```
{ "/table/*", "/user/*", "/contact/*", "/run/*", "/conf/*", ..., ..., ...}

```

It's becoming unmaintainable. It will be simpler just to exclude:

```
{ "/", "/login", "/logout", "/register" }

```

How can I achieve this?

```
@WebFilter(urlPatterns = { "/table/*","/user/*", "/contact/*","/run/*","/conf/*"})
public class SessionTimeoutRedirect implements Filter {

    protected final Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger("SessionFilter");

    @Override
    public void doFilter(ServletRequest req, ServletResponse res,
            FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException {
        HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest) req;
        HttpServletResponse response = (HttpServletResponse) res;
        if (request.getSession().getAttribute("Id") != null) {
            chain.doFilter(req, res);
        } else {
            logger.debug("session is null:"+request.getRequestURL());                    
            response.sendRedirect(request.getContextPath()+"/login");
        }
    }

    @Override
    public void init(FilterConfig arg0) throws ServletException {

    }

    @Override
    public void destroy() {

    }

}

```

Answer: 
The servlet API doesn't support an "exclude" URL pattern. 

Your best bet is to just map on `/*` and compare the [`HttpServletRequest#getRequestURI()`](http://docs.oracle.com/javaee/7/api/javax/servlet/http/HttpServletRequest.html#getRequestURI--) against the set of allowed paths.

```
@WebFilter("/*")
public class LoginFilter implements Filter {

    private static final Set<String> ALLOWED_PATHS = Collections.unmodifiableSet(new HashSet<>(
        Arrays.asList("", "/login", "/logout", "/register")));

    @Override
    public void doFilter(ServletRequest req, ServletResponse res, FilterChain chain) throws IOException, ServletException {
        HttpServletRequest request = (HttpServletRequest) req;
        HttpServletResponse response = (HttpServletResponse) res;
        HttpSession session = request.getSession(false);
        String path = request.getRequestURI().substring(request.getContextPath().length()).replaceAll("[/]+$", ""); 

        boolean loggedIn = (session != null && session.getAttribute("Id") != null);
        boolean allowedPath = ALLOWED_PATHS.contains(path);

        if (loggedIn || allowedPath) {
            chain.doFilter(req, res);
        }
        else {
            response.sendRedirect(request.getContextPath() + "/login");
        }
    }

    // ...
}

```
You can use `initParam` to have some excluded patterns and implement your logic. This is basically the same as [BalusC's](https://stackoverflow.com/a/31327972/149008) answer except by using `initParam` it can be written in the web.xml if you want/need to.

Below I am ignoring some binary (jpeg jpg png pdf) extensions:

```
@WebFilter(urlPatterns = { "/*" },
    initParams = { @WebInitParam(name = "excludedExt", value = "jpeg jpg png pdf") }
)
public class GzipFilter implements Filter {

    private static final Set<String> excluded;

    @Override
    public void init(FilterConfig filterConfig) throws ServletException {
        String excludedString = filterConfig.getInitParameter("excludedExt");
        if (excludedString != null) {
            excluded = Collections.unmodifiableSet(
                new HashSet<>(Arrays.asList(excludedString.split(" ", 0))));
        } else {
            excluded = Collections.<String>emptySet();
        }
    }

    boolean isExcluded(HttpServletRequest request) {
        String path = request.getRequestURI();
        String extension = path.substring(path.indexOf('.', path.lastIndexOf('/')) + 1).toLowerCase();
        return excluded.contains(extension);
    }

    @Override
    public void doFilter(ServletRequest request, ServletResponse response, FilterChain chain)
            throws IOException, ServletException {
        System.out.print("GzipFilter");
        HttpServletRequest httpRequest = (HttpServletRequest) request;
        HttpServletResponse httpResponse = (HttpServletResponse) response;
        if (isExcluded(httpRequest)) {
            chain.doFilter(request, response);
            return;
        }

        // Do your stuff here
    }
}

```