This is an extension to the ResourceLoader interface. A passed-in ResourceLoader (for example, an ApplicationContext passed in via ResourceLoaderAware when running in a context) can be checked whether it implements this extended interface too.

PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver is a standalone implementation that is usable outside an ApplicationContext, also used by ResourceArrayPropertyEditor for populating Resource array bean properties.

Can be used with any sort of location pattern (e.g. "/WEB-INF/*-context.xml"): Input patterns have to match the strategy implementation. This interface just specifies the conversion method rather than a specific pattern format.

This interface also suggests a new resource prefix "classpath*:" for all matching resources from the class path. Note that the resource location is expected to be a path without placeholders in this case (e.g. "/beans.xml"); JAR files or classes directories can contain multiple files of the same name.