JAXB marshal an ArrayList created by XmlAdapter

Question

I want to adapt the XML representation of a HashMap field using XmlAdapter . I use an ArrayList to do that. However, when marshalling the ArrayList is not marshalled at all. Why is that?

The code

@XmlRootElement
public class Foo {

    private HashMap<String, String> hashMap;

    public Foo() {
        this.hashMap = new HashMap<String, String>();
    }

    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(HashMapAdapter.class)
    public HashMap<String, String> getHashmap() {
        return hashMap;
    }

    public void setHashmap(HashMap<String, String> hashMap) {
        this.hashMap = hashMap;
    }

}

public final class HashMapAdapter extends XmlAdapter<ArrayList<HashMapEntry>, HashMap<String, String>> {

    @Override
    public ArrayList<HashMapEntry> marshal(HashMap<String, String> arg0) throws Exception {
        ArrayList<HashMapEntry> result = new ArrayList<HashMapEntry>();
        for(Entry<String, String> entry : arg0.entrySet())
            result.add(new HashMapEntry(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue()));
        return result;
    }

    @Override
    public HashMap<String, String> unmarshal(ArrayList<HashMapEntry> arg0) throws Exception {
        HashMap<String, String> result = new HashMap<String, String>();
        for(HashMapEntry entry : arg0)
            result.put(entry.key, entry.value);
        return result;
    }

}

public class HashMapEntry {

    @XmlElement 
    public String key;

    @XmlValue
    public String value;

    public HashMapEntry() {

    }

    public HashMapEntry(String key, String value) {
        this.key = key;
        this.value = value;
    }
}

The result

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><foo><hashmap/></foo>

Answer 1

In your XmlAdapter you need to convert the HashMap to an an instance of an object with a List property instead of directly to an ArrayList .

HashMapAdapter

package forum13163430;

import java.util.*;
import java.util.Map.Entry;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlAdapter;

public final class HashMapAdapter extends XmlAdapter<HashMapAdapter.AdaptedHashMap, HashMap<String, String>> {

    @Override
    public AdaptedHashMap marshal(HashMap<String, String> hashMap) throws Exception {
        AdaptedHashMap adaptedHashMap = new AdaptedHashMap();
        for(Entry<String, String> entry : hashMap.entrySet()) {
            adaptedHashMap.item.add(new HashMapEntry(entry.getKey(), entry.getValue()));
        }
        return adaptedHashMap;
    }

    @Override
    public HashMap<String, String> unmarshal(AdaptedHashMap adaptedHashMap) throws Exception {
        HashMap<String, String> result = new HashMap<String, String>();
        for(HashMapEntry entry : adaptedHashMap.item)
            result.put(entry.key, entry.value);
        return result;
    }

    public static class AdaptedHashMap {
        public List<HashMapEntry> item = new ArrayList<HashMapEntry>();
    }

    public static class HashMapEntry {

        @XmlAttribute 
        public String key;

        @XmlValue
        public String value;

        public HashMapEntry() {
        }

        public HashMapEntry(String key, String value) {
            this.key = key;
            this.value = value;
        }
    }

}

For More Information

• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2010/07/xmladapter-jaxbs-secret-weapon.html

---

UPDATE

Thanks, this works. However then I get an additional level of annotation in the produced XML. Is there any way to avoid that?

If you are using EclipseLink MOXy as your JAXB (JSR-222) provider then you can leverage the @XmlPath extension for this use case. I'll demonstrate below with an example.

Foo

On the hashmap property in additional to the @XmlJavaTypeAdapter I have added MOXy's @XmlPath annotation. An XML path of "." indicates that the child should be marshalled into the parents XML element.

package forum13163430;

import java.util.HashMap;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlJavaTypeAdapter;
import org.eclipse.persistence.oxm.annotations.XmlPath;

@XmlRootElement
public class Foo {

    private HashMap<String, String> hashMap;

    public Foo() {
        this.hashMap = new HashMap<String, String>();
    }

    @XmlPath(".")
    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(HashMapAdapter.class)
    public HashMap<String, String> getHashmap() {
        return hashMap;
    }

    public void setHashmap(HashMap<String, String> hashMap) {
        this.hashMap = hashMap;
    }

}

jaxb.properties

To specify MOXy as your JAXB provider you need to include 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

Since MOXy is JAXB (JSR-222) compliant implementation, the standard APIs can be used to convert objects from/to XML.

package forum13163430;

import java.io.File;
import javax.xml.bind.*;

public class Demo {

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

        Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jc.createUnmarshaller();
        File xml = new File("src/forum13163430/input.xml");
        Foo foo = (Foo) unmarshaller.unmarshal(xml);

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

}

input.xml/Output

Below is the input to and output from running the demo code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<foo>
   <item key="b">B</item>
   <item key="c">C</item>
   <item key="a">A</item>
</foo>

For More Information

• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2010/07/xpath-based-mapping.html