ComponentLists have two properties that define where a list is rendered. The first one, called path resembles a URL.

When a ComponentListController is rendered, it resolves the component path for the current request. The most simple implementation would be to call request.getRequestURI(). The controller would then use this String to look up all ComponentLists having this path.

Since a page may contain more than one ComponentList, using just the requested path for a look-up would not be sufficient. Therefore each list has a second property called key. This key could be a value like "left" or "right" or something like that. In other words it defines where exactly on a page the list should be displayed.