empty XML tag for null value in XML mapping

Question

I would want to generate a xml with open and close tag for elements which has null value.

Instead of representing xml in below format

</person>

Want to represent like this

<person></person >

I am using java 8 and JAXB

Answer 1

This is kind of hacky way to do it, but it works:

@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
@XmlRootElement
public class SomeRoot {

    private String person;

    private void beforeMarshal(Marshaller marshaller) {
        if(null == person) {
            person = "";
        }
    }

    private void afterMarshal(Marshaller marshaller) {
        if("".equals(person)) {
            person = null;
        }
    }
}

Check this answer for more details/options: Output empty elements