Question

When using JAXB with Java-First, fields/properties of type java.util.Date are marshalled and unmarshalled as xs:dateTime and everything works as expected.

But if the type of the field/property is Object, JAXB unmarshals xs:dateTimeto XMLGregorianCalendarImpl.

I need to find a way that makes JAXB unmarshal date-time values to java.util.Date by itself using annotations. Otherwise, I’ll need to go through all unmarshalled values in each use case.

Even if there were some after-unmarshall-hook to define on the classes containing Object fields and convert the instances manually would be good. But I couldn’t find anything that can be used this way either.

Note that I have limited access to the JAXB context, as it is used inside Apache CXF.

Answer 1

You can set the type property on @XmlElement.

@XmlElement(type=Date.class)
public Object getGenericDateProperty() {
    return date;
}

Edit:

Since you don’t know the type you could use an XmlAdapter. If the unmarshalled value is an XMLGregorianCalendar convert it to a Date. For more info on XmlAdapter see:

• http://bdoughan.blogspot.com/2010/07/xmladapter-jaxbs-secret-weapon.html