How to use a Servlet Filter to change/rewrite an incoming URL?

1. Implement javax.servlet.Filter.
2. In doFilter() method, cast the incoming ServletRequest to HttpServletRequest.
3. Use HttpServletRequest#getRequestURI() to grab the path.
4. Use straightforward java.lang.String methods like substring(), split(), concat() and so on to extract the part of interest and compose the new path.
5. Use either ServletRequest#getRequestDispatcher() and then RequestDispatcher#forward() to forward the request/response to the new URL (server-side redirect, not reflected in browser address bar), or cast the incoming ServletResponse to HttpServletResponse and then HttpServletResponse#sendRedirect() to redirect the response to the new URL (client side redirect, reflected in browser address bar).
6. Register the filter in web.xml on an url-pattern of /* or /Check_License/*, depending on the context path, or if you’re on Servlet 3.0 already, use the @WebFilter annotation for that instead.

Don’t forget to add a check in the code if the URL needs to be changed and if not, then just call FilterChain#doFilter(), else it will call itself in an infinite loop.

Alternatively you can also just use an existing 3rd party API to do all the work for you, such as Tuckey’s UrlRewriteFilter which can be configured the way as you would do with Apache’s mod_rewrite.