Question

I have a question about JAXB. Basically what I have are these two classes:

Element {
  String name
  List<Attribute> attributes;
}

Attribute {
  String key
  String value
}

Of course with getters and setters, and with JAXB XmlRootElement.

The XML generated from this is:

<element>
    <attributes>
        <key>id</key>
        <value>1</value>
    </attributes>
    <name>My Element</name>
</element>

But what I’m looking for is something more like this:

<element id="1">
    <name>My Element</name>
</element>

That is, for each instance of Attribute, I want key=value (as an attribute)

Is this possible in JAXB?

Regards,
Morten

Answer 1

I do not think that it will work with a List. But there is an alternative using a

• Map and
• @XmlAnyAttribute

Your example:

  @XmlRootElement
  public static class Element
  {
    @XmlElement
    String             name;

    @XmlAnyAttribute
    Map<QName, Object> map;
  }

  {
    //
    Element element = new Element();
    element.name = "a wonderful name";
    element.map = new HashMap<QName, Object>();
    element.map.put( new QName( "id" ), "1" );
    element.map.put( new QName( "other" ), "2" );
  }

Result of that:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<element id="1" other="2">
    <name>a wonderful name</name>
</element>

Best regards!