MOXy's @XmlCDATA seems to have no affect

Question

I would like to have the following returned to the browser (view source)

<content>
<![CDATA[Please show this inside a unescaped CDATA tag]]>
</content>

But I acutally get

<content>
Please show this inside a unescaped CDATA tag
</content>

If, I change the value of content to be

&lt ;![CDATA[Please show this inside a unescaped CDATA tag]]&gt ; , the less than and the greater than for the tag are escaped.

Wondering how to achieve what I wanted????

Here is my code

import javax.ws.rs.GET;
import javax.ws.rs.Path;
import javax.ws.rs.PathParam;
import javax.ws.rs.Produces;
import javax.ws.rs.core.MediaType;

@Path("/myRequest")
public class MyRestClass {

    @GET
    @Path("{myPathNumber}")
    @Produces({MediaType.APPLICATION_XML, MediaType.APPLICATION_JSON})
    public Object doInquiry(@PathParam("myPathNumber") String myPathNumber) {
        try {
            return new MyObject();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            return "exception " + e.getMessage();
        }
    }
}

package org.openengine.wink;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
import org.eclipse.persistence.oxm.annotations.XmlCDATA;

@XmlRootElement
public class MyObject implements Serializable {

    @XmlElement 
    @XmlCDATA
    private String content = "Please show this inside a unescaped CDATA tag";

}

in package org.openengine.wink I have a file, jaxb.properties, with the following content

javax.xml.bind.context.factory=org.eclipse.persistence.jaxb.JAXBContextFactory

Answer 1

CLASSPATH

My best guess is that EclipseLink JAXB (MOXy) is not correctly configured on your classpath, and the JAXB RI is being used as the JAXB (JSR-222) provider in your environment.

---

METADATA

The EclipseLink JAXB (MOXy) metadata you have provided appears to be correct. This can be verified with the following standalone demo code.

MyObject

By default JAXB (JSR-222) implementations look for metadata on the property (getter/setter). Since you have annotated the field I would recommend using the @XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD annotation (see: http://blog.bdoughan.com/2011/06/using-jaxbs-xmlaccessortype-to.html).

package org.openengine.wink;

import java.io.Serializable;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;
import org.eclipse.persistence.oxm.annotations.XmlCDATA;

@XmlRootElement
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class MyObject implements Serializable {

    @XmlElement 
    @XmlCDATA
    private String content = "Please show this inside a unescaped CDATA tag";

}

jaxb.properties

To specify MOXy as your JAXB provider you need to have the EclipseLink binaries on your classpath and have a file called jaxb.properties in the same package as your domain model with the following entry (see: http://blog.bdoughan.com/2011/05/specifying-eclipselink-moxy-as-your.html).

javax.xml.bind.context.factory=org.eclipse.persistence.jaxb.JAXBContextFactory

Demo

package org.openengine.wink;

import javax.xml.bind.*;

public class Demo {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        JAXBContext jc = JAXBContext.newInstance(MyObject.class);

        MyObject myObject = new MyObject();

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

}

Output

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<myObject>
   <content><![CDATA[Please show this inside a unescaped CDATA tag]]></content>
</myObject>

For More Information

• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2010/07/cdata-cdata-run-run-data-run.html