JAXB, stands for Java Architecture for XML Binding, using JAXB annotation to convert Java object to / from XML file. In this tutorial, we show you how to use JAXB to do following stuffs :
- Marshalling – Convert a Java object into a XML file.
- Unmarshalling – Convert XML content into a Java Object.
Technologies used in this article
- JDK 1.6
- JAXB 2.0
Working with JAXB is easy, just annotate object with JAXB annotation, later use jaxbMarshaller.marshal()
or jaxbMarshaller.unmarshal()
to do the object / XML conversion.
- JAXB Dependency =================
No extra jaxb libraries are required if you are using JDK1.6 or above, because JAXB is bundled in JDK 1.6.
Note: For JDK < 1.6, download JAXB from here, and puts “jaxb-api.jar” and “jaxb-impl.jar” on your project classpath.
- JAXB Annotation ===================
For object that need to convert to / from XML file, it have to annotate with JAXB annotation. The annotation are pretty self-explanatory, you can refer to this JAXB guide for detail explanation.
package com.mkyong.core;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAttribute;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
@XmlRootElement
public class Customer {
String name;
int age;
int id;
public String getName() {
return name;
}
@XmlElement
public void setName(String name) {
this.name = name;
}
public int getAge() {
return age;
}
@XmlElement
public void setAge(int age) {
this.age = age;
}
public int getId() {
return id;
}
@XmlAttribute
public void setId(int id) {
this.id = id;
}
}
- Convert Object to XML ============================
JAXB marshalling example, convert customer object into a XML file. The jaxbMarshaller.marshal()
contains a lot of overloaded methods, find one that suit your output.
package com.mkyong.core;
import java.io.File;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBException;
import javax.xml.bind.Marshaller;
public class JAXBExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Customer customer = new Customer();
customer.setId(100);
customer.setName("mkyong");
customer.setAge(29);
try {
File file = new File("C:\\file.xml");
JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(Customer.class);
Marshaller jaxbMarshaller = jaxbContext.createMarshaller();
// output pretty printed
jaxbMarshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
jaxbMarshaller.marshal(customer, file);
jaxbMarshaller.marshal(customer, System.out);
} catch (JAXBException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
Output
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<customer id="100">
<age>29</age>
<name>mkyong</name>
</customer>
- Convert XML to Object ====================================
JAXB unmarshalling example, convert a XML file content into a customer object. The jaxbMarshaller.unmarshal()
contains a lot of overloaded methods, find one that suit yours.
package com.mkyong.core;
import java.io.File;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBException;
import javax.xml.bind.Unmarshaller;
public class JAXBExample {
public static void main(String[] args) {
try {
File file = new File("C:\\file.xml");
JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(Customer.class);
Unmarshaller jaxbUnmarshaller = jaxbContext.createUnmarshaller();
Customer customer = (Customer) jaxbUnmarshaller.unmarshal(file);
System.out.println(customer);
} catch (JAXBException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
Output
Customer [name=mkyong, age=29, id=100]