wsimport tool is converting DataHandler type byte[] in the generated client code

Question

I have a simple WebService developed using JAXWS. I need to upload/download some Files. I have created a Class FileItem with DataHandler a property. The service is running fine.

But when I generated the client stubs using wsimport tool, the FileItem class is having byte[] type property instead of DataHandler type.

How can I customize this behavior so that the generated code also have same DataHandler Type in generated client code?

Answer 1

Short Answer

If you specify an xmime:expectedContentTypes on the element that is anything except: image/gif , image/jpeg , text/xml , or application/xml then the generated property will be of type DataHandler .

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Long Answer

From Section H.2.1.1 Binding Known Media Type of the JAXB 2.2 specification, below are how mime types correspond to the generated Java types.

MIME Type              Java Type
---------              -------------
image/gif              java.awt.Image
image/jpeg             java.awt.Image
text/xml               javax.xml.transform.Source
application/xml        javax.xml.transform.Source
any other mime type    javax.activation.DataHandler

XML Schema

Below is an XML schema that has many elements of type base64Binary , most of them are qualified with xmime:expectedContentTypes so that we can see the impact on the resulting class generation.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<xsd:schema
    xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
    xmlns:xmime="http://www.w3.org/2005/05/xmlmime"
    xmlns="http://www.example.com"
    targetNamespace="http://www.example.com">
    <xsd:element name="root">
        <xsd:complexType>
            <xsd:sequence>
                <xsd:element minOccurs="0" name="default" type="xsd:base64Binary"/>
                <xsd:element minOccurs="0" name="imageGif" type="xsd:base64Binary" xmime:expectedContentTypes="image/gif"/>
                <xsd:element minOccurs="0" name="imageJpeg" type="xsd:base64Binary" xmime:expectedContentTypes="image/jpeg"/>
                <xsd:element minOccurs="0" name="textXml" type="xsd:base64Binary" xmime:expectedContentTypes="text/xml"/>
                <xsd:element minOccurs="0" name="applicationXml" type="xsd:base64Binary" xmime:expectedContentTypes="application/xml"/>
                <xsd:element minOccurs="0" name="anythingElse" type="xsd:base64Binary" xmime:expectedContentTypes="anything/else"/>
            </xsd:sequence>
        </xsd:complexType>
    </xsd:element>
</xsd:schema>

Root(Generated Class)

Below is the resulting generated class. The resulting property types are byte[] , Image , Source , and DataHandler .

package com.example;

import java.awt.Image;
import javax.activation.DataHandler;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;
import javax.xml.transform.Source;

@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
@XmlType(name = "", propOrder = {
    "_default",
    "imageGif",
    "imageJpeg",
    "textXml",
    "applicationXml",
    "anythingElse"
})
@XmlRootElement(name = "root")
public class Root {

    @XmlElement(name = "default")
    protected byte[] _default;
    @XmlMimeType("image/gif")
    protected Image imageGif;
    @XmlMimeType("image/jpeg")
    protected Image imageJpeg;
    @XmlMimeType("text/xml")
    protected Source textXml;
    @XmlMimeType("application/xml")
    protected Source applicationXml;
    @XmlMimeType("anything/else")
    protected DataHandler anythingElse;


    ...
}

Answer 2

It seems wsimport does not know how your DataHandler objects should be serialized and just assumes you want them as a byte array. Use the right jaxb annotations on your DataHandler class for proper XML serialization.