Category Archives: JAXB

This tutorial has three files:

• Java Object: MyJAXBObject.java
• Main Class: JavaToXMLUsingJAXB.java
• JAXB Index File: jaxb.index (content of this file is a class name ‘MyJAXBObject’ (without quotes)

All of these files are in the same directory.

• JDK Version: 1.5

Jar Dependencies:

jsr173_api.jar
jaxb-apijar

The fully compiled and tested classes are give below:

package com.kushal.xml;
import java.io.FileOutputStream;

import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import javax.xml.bind.Marshaller;
/**
 * @author KushalP
 * www.sanjaal.com/java
 * This class demonstrates the use of JAXB (JAVA API for XML Binding) to:
 * -- Convert a java object into XML file
 * -- Ouput the XML file to console and physical file
 *
 * The following jar files were used:
 * jsr173_api.jar
 * jaxb-apijar
 */
public class JavaToXMLUsingJAXB {

	public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
	    /**
	     * Create a context with a package name of where objects are located
	     */
		JAXBContext context = JAXBContext.newInstance("com.kushal.xml");

		/**
		 * Create an XML Marshaller
		 */
	    Marshaller m = context.createMarshaller();
	    /**
	     * Set the Marshaller property
	     * Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, Boolean.TRUE formats output XML
	     */
	    m.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, Boolean.TRUE);

	    /**
	     * Create an instance of the object which has to be converted to XML file.
	     * You should create a jaxb.index file in the package defined above
	     * and list the Objects (class names without .java or .class) in that file.
	     */
	    MyJAXBObject object = new MyJAXBObject();
	    /**
	     * Set the object properties
	     */
	    object.setMyField1("Tim Baker");
	    object.setMyField2("New Jersey");
	    object.setMyIntegerField(678);

	    /**
	     * Marshal the object to the console.
	     */
	    m.marshal(object, System.out);

	    /**
	     * Marshalling the same object to the physical file
	     */
	    m.marshal(object, new FileOutputStream("C:/temp/myJAXBgenerated.xml"));
	  }
	}

Here is the plain Object with three fields:

package com.kushal.xml;

/**
 * This is a simple object that contains three fields.
 *
 * It is intended to be instantiated and converted to XML file
 * using JAXB (JAVA API for XML Binding)
 *
 * Uses Java Annotation.
 * Requires the project compatible to jdk 1.5 or above
 * Otherwise you will get annotation errror.
 */
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement
public class MyJAXBObject {
	private String myField1;

	private String myField2;

	private int myIntegerField;

	public String getMyField1() {
		return myField1;
	}

	public void setMyField1(String myField1) {
		this.myField1 = myField1;
	}

	public String getMyField2() {
		return myField2;
	}

	public void setMyField2(String myField2) {
		this.myField2 = myField2;
	}

	public int getMyIntegerField() {
		return myIntegerField;
	}

	public void setMyIntegerField(int value) {
		this.myIntegerField = value;
	}

}

Also, you need to have a jaxb.index file created in the same package as the objects with the following content:

MyJAXBObject

When you run this program, the XML file will be generated and printed to both console and file. The following is the output of the generated XML file.

Originally posted 2010-08-13 14:33:50.