JAXB inheritance, unmarshal to subclass of marshaled class

Question

I\'m using JAXB to read and write XML. What I want is to use a base JAXB class for marshalling and an inherited JAXB class for unmarshalling. This is to allow a sender Java

Answer 1

You're using JAXB 2.0 right? (since JDK6)

There is a class:

javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlAdapter

which one can subclass, and override following methods:

public abstract BoundType unmarshal(ValueType v) throws Exception;
public abstract ValueType marshal(BoundType v) throws Exception;

Example:

public class YourNiceAdapter
        extends XmlAdapter{

    @Override public Person unmarshal(ReceiverPerson v){
        return v;
    }
    @Override public ReceiverPerson marshal(Person v){
        return new ReceiverPerson(v); // you must provide such c-tor
    }
}

Usage is done by as following:

@Your_favorite_JAXB_Annotations_Go_Here
class SomeClass{
    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(YourNiceAdapter.class)
    Person hello; // field to unmarshal
}

I'm pretty sure, by using this concept you can control the marshalling/unmarshalling process by yourself (including the choice the correct [sub|super]type to construct).