Question

I’m working with a xml file that is generated and used in a .NET application.

I need to deserialize this file in Java and chose to use JAXB.

However, after trying to create the matching class I figured out one major difference.

When having a

@XmlRootElement
public class SomeClass{ 
    List<NestedClass> classes;
}

I get the following structure:

 <SomeClass>
        ...
        <NestedClasses>
        ...
        </NestedClasses>
        <NestedClasses>
        ...
        </NestedClasses>
    </SomeClass>

As oppesed to the required existing structure:

<SomeClass>
        ...
        <NestedClasses>
          <NestedClass>
          ...
          </NestedClass>
          <NestedClass>
          ...
          </NestedClass>
        </NestedClasses>
    </SomeClass>

Is there is a way to get my required structure without adding a class that will only contain the list of the nested class?

Answer 1

You will need to have a class that wraps the collection. To get the desired mapping, you can use the @XmlElementWrapper annotation to specify that a grouping element should be used. Then you can use the @XmlElement annotation to specify the name of the element that represents the items in the collection:

@XmlRootElement
public class SomeClass{ 
    @XmlElementWrapper
    @XmlElement(name="NestedClass")
    List<NestedClass> classes;
}

For More Information

• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2010/09/jaxb-collection-properties.html