Question

Once again I have a question about Eclipselink/MOXy with external metadata mapping file.

I have a reference xml which applies to a class. This xml contains data that applies to some but not always all the properties that the class can contain.

I also have a custom datetime adapter set for the date fields.

My problem is that the xml I’m unmarshalling does not contain any data for the endDate property, yet when I do this simple test :

• Unmarshall reference xml to the class
• Marshall that class to a new xml file
• Compare the two xml files

That property endDate (which should not be marshalled since it has not been set) is marshalled as 09/01/2012 17:05:28 (it’s always marshalled as a new Date() set to the current time).

Here is a sample XML Metadata file :

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml-bindings  xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/eclipselink/xsds/persistence/oxm"
                version="2.1">
    <java-types>
        <java-type name="sample.clazz.Task" xml-accessor-type="NONE">
            <xml-root-element name="Task" />
            <xml-type prop-order="startDate endDate id ci ch cr" />
            <java-attributes>
                <xml-element java-attribute="startDate" xml-path="StartDate/text()">
                    <xml-java-type-adapter value="utils.JaxBDateTimeAdapter" type="java.util.Date"/>
                </xml-element>
                <xml-element java-attribute="endDate" required="false" xml-path="EndDate/text()">
                    <xml-java-type-adapter value="utils.JaxBDateTimeAdapter" type="java.util.Date"/>
                </xml-element>
                <xml-element java-attribute="id" xml-path="TaskId/text()" />
                <xml-element java-attribute="ci" xml-path="CIPR/text()" />
                <xml-element java-attribute="ch" xml-path="CHPR/text()" />
                <xml-element java-attribute="cr" xml-path="CRPR/text()" />
            </java-attributes>
        </java-type>
    </java-types>
</xml-bindings>

Here is the class :

package sample.clazz;

public class Task{

    private int id;
    private Date startDate;
    private Date endDate;
    private String ci;
    private String ch;
    private String cr;

    public Task(){

    }

    public int getId() {
        return id;
    }
    public void setId(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }
    public Date getStartDate() {
        return startDate;
    }
    public void setStartDate(Date startDate) {
        this.startDate = startDate;
    }
    public Date getEndDate() {
        return endDate;
    }
    public void setEndDate(Date endDate) {
        this.endDate = endDate;
    }
    public String getCi() {
        return ci;
    }
    public void setCi(String ci) {
        this.ci = ci;
    }
    public String getCh() {
        return ch;
    }
    public void setCh(String ch) {
        this.ch = ch;
    }
    public String getCr() {
        return cr;
    }
    public void setCr(String cr) {
        this.cr = cr;
    }

}

Here is my custom DateTimeAdapter :

package utils;

import java.util.Date;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlAdapter;

public class JaxBDateTimeAdapter extends XmlAdapter<String, Date>  {


    @Override
    public String marshal(Date d) throws Exception {
        if(d != null){
            return DateUtil.getFormatedDateTimeString(d);
        }
        else{
            return null;
        }
    }

    @Override
    public Date unmarshal(String d) throws Exception {
        if(d != null && !"".equals(d)){
            return DateUtil.getDateFromString(d);
        }
        else{
            return null;
        }
    }
}

Here is my reference XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Task>
    <TaskId>147</TaskId>
    <CRPR>0087</CRPR>
    <CIPR>A683557</CIPR>
    <CHPR>BV</CHPR>
    <StartDate>22/01/2009 20:56:29</StartDate>
</Task>

and Here is the XML I’m getting when re-marshalling the object :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Task>
    <TaskId>147</TaskId>
    <CRPR>0087</CRPR>
    <CIPR>A683557</CIPR>
    <CHPR>BV</CHPR>
    <StartDate>01/01/2012 20:56:29</StartDate>
    <EndDate>09/01/2012 17:05:28</EndDate> <!-- That element should not exist ! -->
</Task>

It seems like Jaxb generates a new date for the empty field, how can I tell him via the external metadata mapping file not to generate nodes for empty or null values ? I tried to set required=false on the metadata file, and I tried testing with my custom DateTimeAdapter if the values were null, but it seems Jaxb creates a new Date object and passes it to the marshal method of the Adapter. I cant think of any way of preventing him to do this.

As for my previous questions, I have no control over the incoming XML’s or the model classes.

Please note : this data is a sample I wrote, it may not be accurate since I cannot expose real data or names, there might be some typing errors.

Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

I’m the EclipseLink JAXB (MOXy) lead and I have not been able to reproduce your issue. It may be possible that there is a problem in your DateUtil class. The following is what I have tried:

oxm.xml

I made a small change to your metadatafile. Basically I changed it to specify the package name on the xml-bindings element rather than the individual java-type elements:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xml-bindings  
    xmlns="http://www.eclipse.org/eclipselink/xsds/persistence/oxm"
    version="2.3"
    package-name="sample.clazz">
    <java-types>
        <java-type name="Task" xml-accessor-type="NONE">
            <xml-root-element name="Task" />
            <xml-type prop-order="startDate endDate id ci ch cr" />
            <java-attributes>
                <xml-element java-attribute="startDate" xml-path="StartDate/text()">
                    <xml-java-type-adapter value="forum8791782.JaxBDateTimeAdapter" type="java.util.Date"/>
                </xml-element>
                <xml-element java-attribute="endDate" required="false" xml-path="EndDate/text()">
                    <xml-java-type-adapter value="forum8791782.JaxBDateTimeAdapter" type="java.util.Date"/>
                </xml-element>
                <xml-element java-attribute="id" xml-path="TaskId/text()" />
                <xml-element java-attribute="ci" xml-path="CIPR/text()" />
                <xml-element java-attribute="ch" xml-path="CHPR/text()" />
                <xml-element java-attribute="cr" xml-path="CRPR/text()" />
            </java-attributes>
        </java-type>
    </java-types>
</xml-bindings>

DateUtil

You did not provide an implementation of DateUtil in your question, so I used the following. My guess is there is code in your implementation of DateUtil that is causing the output that you are seeing:

package forum8791782;

import java.text.SimpleDateFormat;
import java.util.Date;

public class DateUtil {

    private static SimpleDateFormat formatter = new SimpleDateFormat("dd/MM/yyyy HH:mm:ss");

    public static String getFormatedDateTimeString(Date d) {
        return formatter.format(d);
    }

    public static Date getDateFromString(String d) {
        try {
            return formatter.parse(d);
        } catch(Exception e) {
            throw new RuntimeException(e);
        }
    }

}

Demo

Below is the code I used to run this example. input.xml is the reference XML you cite in your question:

package forum8791782;

import java.io.File;
import java.util.*;
import javax.xml.bind.*;

import org.eclipse.persistence.Version;
import org.eclipse.persistence.jaxb.JAXBContextFactory;

import sample.clazz.Task;

public class Demo {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        System.out.println(Version.getVersionString());

        Map<String, Object> properties = new HashMap<String, Object>(1);
        properties.put(JAXBContextFactory.ECLIPSELINK_OXM_XML_KEY, "forum8791782/oxm.xml");
        JAXBContext jc = JAXBContext.newInstance(new Class[] {Task.class}, properties);

        File xml = new File("src/forum8791782/input.xml");
        Unmarshaller u = jc.createUnmarshaller();
        Task task = (Task) u.unmarshal(xml);

        Marshaller m = jc.createMarshaller();
        m.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
        m.marshal(task, System.out);
    }

}

Output

The following is the output I get from running the sample code. I do not see the EndDate element written out.

2.3.2.v20111125-r10461
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Task>
   <StartDate>22/01/2009 20:56:29</StartDate>
   <TaskId>147</TaskId>
   <CIPR>A683557</CIPR>
   <CHPR>BV</CHPR>
   <CRPR>0087</CRPR>
</Task>