XmlAdapter (Java EE 5 SDK) - Java Platform, Enterprise Edition v5.0 API Specifications

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javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters
Class XmlAdapter<ValueType,BoundType>

java.lang.Object
  javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlAdapter<ValueType,BoundType>


Type Parameters:: BoundType - The type that JAXB doesn't know how to handle. An adapter is written to allow this type to be used as an in-memory representation through the ValueType.; ValueType - The type that JAXB knows how to handle out of the box.

Direct Known Subclasses:: CollapsedStringAdapter, HexBinaryAdapter, NormalizedStringAdapter

public abstract class XmlAdapter<ValueType,BoundType>
extends Object
extends Object

Adapts a Java type for custom marshaling.

Usage:

Some Java types do not map naturally to a XML representation, for example HashMap or other non JavaBean classes. Conversely, a XML repsentation may map to a Java type but an application may choose to accesss the XML representation using another Java type. For example, the schema to Java binding rules bind xs:DateTime by default to XmlGregorianCalendar. But an application may desire to bind xs:DateTime to a custom type, MyXmlGregorianCalendar, for example. In both cases, there is a mismatch between bound type , used by an application to access XML content and the value type, that is mapped to an XML representation.

This abstract class defines methods for adapting a bound type to a value type or vice versa. The methods are invoked by the JAXB binding framework during marshaling and unmarshalling:

XmlAdapter.marshal(...): During marshalling, JAXB binding framework invokes XmlAdapter.marshal(..) to adapt a bound type to value type, which is then marshaled to XML representation.
XmlAdapter.unmarshal(...): During unmarshalling, JAXB binding framework first unmarshals XML representation to a value type and then invokes XmlAdapter.unmarshal(..) to adapt the value type to a bound type.

Writing an adapter therefore involves the following steps:

Write an adapter that implements this abstract class.
Install the adapter using the annotation XmlJavaTypeAdapter

Example: Customized mapping of HashMap

The following example illustrates the use of @XmlAdapter and @XmlJavaTypeAdapter to customize the mapping of a HashMap.

Step 1: Determine the desired XML representation for HashMap.

     <hashmap>
         <entry key="id123">this is a value</entry>
         <entry key="id312">this is another value</entry>
         ...
       </hashmap>

Step 2: Determine the schema definition that the desired XML representation shown above should follow.

     
     <xs:complexType name="myHashMapType">
       <xs:sequence>
         <xs:element name="entry" type="myHashMapEntryType"
                        minOccurs = "0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
       </xs:sequence>
     </xs:complexType>

     <xs:complexType name="myHashMapEntryType">
       <xs:simpleContent>
         <xs:extension base="xs:string">
           <xs:attribute name="key" type="xs:int"/>
         </xs:extension>
       </xs:simpleContent>
     </xs:complexType>

Step 3: Write value types that can generate the above schema definition.

     public class MyHashMapType {
         List<MyHashMapEntryType> entry;
     }

     public class MyHashMapEntryType {
         @XmlAttribute
         public Integer key; 

         @XmlValue
         public String value;
     }

Step 4: Write the adapter that adapts the value type, MyHashMapType to a bound type, HashMap, used by the application.

     public final class MyHashMapAdapter extends
                        XmlAdapter<HashMap, MyHashMapType> { ... }

Step 5: Use the adapter.

     public class Foo {
         @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(MyHashMapAdapter.class)
         HashMap hashmap;
         ...
     }

The above code fragment will map to the following schema:

     <xs:complexType name="Foo">
       <xs:sequence>
         <xs:element name="hashmap" type="myHashMapType"
       </xs:sequence>
     </xs:complexType>

Since:

JAXB 2.0

Author:

Sekhar Vajjhala, Sun Microsystems Inc.
Kohsuke Kawaguchi, Sun Microsystems Inc.

See Also:

XmlJavaTypeAdapter

Constructor Summary

protected XmlAdapter()
          Do-nothing constructor for the derived classes.

Method Summary

abstract ValueType marshal(BoundType v)
          Convert a bound type to a value type.

abstract BoundType unmarshal(ValueType v)
          Convert a value type to a bound type.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object

clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait

Constructor Summary
`protected`	`XmlAdapter()` Do-nothing constructor for the derived classes.

Method Summary
`abstract ValueType`	`marshal(BoundType v)` Convert a bound type to a value type.
`abstract BoundType`	`unmarshal(ValueType v)` Convert a value type to a bound type.

Methods inherited from class java.lang.Object
`clone, equals, finalize, getClass, hashCode, notify, notifyAll, toString, wait, wait, wait`

Constructor Detail

XmlAdapter

protected XmlAdapter()

Do-nothing constructor for the derived classes.

Method Detail

unmarshal

public abstract BoundType unmarshal(ValueType v)
                             throws Exception

Convert a value type to a bound type.

Parameters:: v - The value to be converted. Can be null.
Throws:: Exception - if there's an error during the conversion. The caller is responsible for reporting the error to the user through ValidationEventHandler.

marshal

public abstract ValueType marshal(BoundType v)
                           throws Exception

Convert a bound type to a value type.

Parameters:: v - The value to be convereted. Can be null.
Throws:: Exception - if there's an error during the conversion. The caller is responsible for reporting the error to the user through ValidationEventHandler.