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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-06-18T10:34:14+00:00

I need to write a rest client (in Java – using RestEasy) that can

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I need to write a rest client (in Java – using RestEasy) that can consume JSON responses. Regarding the need for the rest client (or wrapping service) to translate the JSON responses to a Java type, I see the following options:
1. map the response to a string and then use JsonParser tools to extract data and build types manually.
2. Use JAXB annotated POJOs – in conjunction with jackson – to automatically bind the json response to an object.

Regarding 2, is it desirable / correct to define an XSD to generate the JAXB annotated POJOs? I can advantages to doing this using, e.g. reuse by an XML client.

Thanks.

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  1. Editorial Team

    I’m a fan of #2.

    The reasoning is that your JAXB annotated model objects essentially are the contract for the business/domain logic that you’re trying to represent on a transport level, and POJOs obviously give you excellent control over getter/setter validation, and you can control your element names and namespaces with fine granularity.

    With that said, I like having an additional “inner” model of POJOs (if necessary, depending on problem complexity/project scope) to isolate the transport layer from the domain objects. Also, you get a nice warm feeling that you’re not directly tied to your transport layer if things need to change internally in your business/domain object representation. A co-worker mentioned Dozer, a tool for mapping beans to beans, but I have no direct experience with it to comment further.

    I’m not a fan of generating code from XSDs. Often the code is ugly or downright unreadable; and managing change, however subtle or insignificant can introduce unexpected results. Maybe I’m wrong about that but I require good unit-tests on a proven model.

    This is based on my personal experience writing a customer-facing SDK with a hairy XML-over-HTTP (we don’t call it REST) API. JAXB/Jackson annotated POJOs made it relatively painless. Hope that helps.

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