The PatternElement type defines single string pattern for file/ directory matching. The defining Java class is net.brutex.xservices.types.PatternElement . These patterns look exactly like those used in Apache Ant Patterns. The '*' matches zero or more characters and the '?' will match a single character. Both symbols can be combined in one pattern. The '**' symbol can be used to match any directory deepth. Some example patterns: **/mydir/** Match all file that are located in any directory that has "mydir" string in its pathname. Also applies to files with "mydir" in their name. /mydir/ The parser will automatically append an '**' symbol, thus the resulting pattern is /mydir/**. All files below the "/mydir/" directory (including its sub-directories will be chosen. The pattern is OS independent. You should always use "/" as path separator, even on windows based systems. Schema definition ]]> Example XML **/*]]>