Using Wildcards

JFrog REST APIs

Products

JFrog Xray

Content Type

REST API

ft:sourceType

Paligo

To enable search using non-specific criteria, AQL supports wildcards in common search functions.

Use Wildcards with $match and $nmatch

When using the "$match" and "$nmatch" operators, the "*" wildcard replaces any string and the "?" wildcard replaces a single character.

"Catch all" Notation on Properties

In addition to supporting "$match" and "$nmatch", AQL supports a notation that uses wildcards to match any key or any value on properties.

If you specify "@*" as the property key, then it means a match on any key.

If you specify "*" as the property value, then it means a match on any value

Element	Description
Example	Find items that have any property with a value of "GPL"
Regular notation	`items.find({"$and" : [{"property.key" : {"$eq" : "*"}}, {"property.value" : {"$eq" : "GPL"}}]})`
Short notation	`items.find({"@*":"GPL"})`

Element	Description
Example	Find any items annotated with any property whose key is "license" (i.e. find any items with a "license" property)
Regular notation	items.find({"$and" : [{"property.key" : {"$eq" : "license"}}, {"property.value" : {"$eq" : "*"}}]})
Short notation	items.find({"@artifactory.licenses":"*"})

Be careful not to misuse wildcards

Wildcard characters ("*" and "?") used in queries that do not conform to the above rules are interpreted as literals.

Examples of Wildcard Usage

To avoid confusion, here are some examples that use the "*" and "?" characters explaining why they are interpreted as wildcards or literals.

Query	Wildcard or Literal	Explanation	What the query returns
`items.find({"name":{"$match":"ant-1.9.4.*"}})`	Wildcard	Wildcards on fields are allowed with the `$match` operator.	All items whose name matches the expression "ant-1.9.4.*"
`items.find({"name":{"$eq":"ant-1.9.4.*"}})`	Literal	Wildcards on fields are only allowed with the `$match` and `$nmatch` operators.	Only find items whose name is literally "ant-1.9.4.*"
`items.find({"@artifactory.licenses":"*"})`	Wildcard	For properties, this short notation is allowed and denotes any value	All items with a property whose key is "license"
`items.find({"@artifactory.licenses":"*GPL"})`	Literal	This is the short notation replacing the $eq operator for properties, but it does not use the "catch all" notation for properties.	All items with a license whose value is literally "*GPL"
`items.find({"@artifactory.licenses":{"$match":"GPL"}})`	Wildcard	Wildcards on properties are allowed with the `$match` operator.	All items with a license matches the expression "GPL"