Converting java object to xml - java

How can i convert java object to xml? I am trying to convert an incoming java object to xml in spring integration with a converter bean. is there another way than marshalling in Jaxb ? like using #TypeConverter. Or implementing converter class.

I'm not familiar with #TypeConverter, but looks that that is an EclipseLink feature for JPA. In the end it has this JavaDoc on the #Convert:
/**
* Constant name for the reserved XML converter.
* This will use JAXB to convert the object to and from XML.
*/
public static final String XML = "xml";
So, it still would require from you a JaxB Marshaller to be configured.
Not sure from here why do you ask about Spring Integration if your end goal is JPA...
Anyway: the best way to convert object to XML in Spring Integration is indeed use a MarshallingTransformer which could be configured with any org.springframework.oxm.Marshaller impl, not only JaxB.
If you are looking for some conversion way in between, you may also look into MappingJackson2MessageConverter when you inject an XmlMapper from Jackson lib.
For better assisting you, we definitely need to know more about your use-case and what and how you'd like to marshal into an XML.

Related

How is javax.ws.rs.client.Entity serializing objects to json?

What serializer is Entity.json(T entity) using to serialize/deserialize objects? Is it somehow possible to use a custom serializer?
In my case the serialization is wrong because my object contains fields with the Guava Optional data type and absent values are returned as {"present":false} instead of null.
The JSON serializer isn't specified by JAX-RS, it depends on your configuration. For example, Jersey JAX-RS allows several (https://jersey.java.net/documentation/latest/media.html), including
MOXy
Java API for JSON Processing (JSON-P)
Jackson
Jettison
But a better solution is not to use Optional (either Guava or Java 8) for fields. See http://blog.joda.org/2014/11/optional-in-java-se-8.html
My only fear is that Optional will be overused. Please focus on using
it as a return type (from methods that perform some useful piece of
functionality) Please don't use it as the field of a Java-Bean.
Not directly solving your problem. I suggest you use Googles Gson as a parser. It is very flexible and configurable.
Tutorial
It also skips blank fields so the json size is not too large.

Is there a good "standard" Java interface for XML and JSON readers/writers?

Basically, I want to have an interface for converting Objects to/from their XML or JSON String representation, something like
public interface IStringifier{
/**
Converts the Object to it's String representation, e.g. XML or JSON
*/
public String toString(Object o);
/**
Converts from the String representation (e.g. XML or JSON) to an Object
*/
public Object fromString(String s, Class<?> clazz);
}
Such an interface would be fairly simple to implement in GSON, XStream etc. but by abstracting it you are abstracted from knowing just what is going on underneath. And you are decoupled from one of the many many XML or JSON libraries, so clients are freer to pick their favorite.
Is there any "standard" Java interface for this? Something in Guava, Apache, etc?
(added) None of the answers were what I really wanted ("yes, in javax.obscure.interfaces there's what you want") but thanks for the replies. I'll accept Tom's answer as the most informative/provocative. And maybe I'll clean up the code I have and try to create a standard. :-)
JAXB (JSR-222) is the Java SE/EE standard for converting objects to/from XML. It can be used standalone and is the standard binding layer for JAX-WS (SOAP) and JAX-RS (RESTful) Web Services. Below is a link to an example of specifying an alternate provider via a jaxb.properties file.
http://blog.bdoughan.com/2011/05/specifying-eclipselink-moxy-as-your.html
There currently isn't a standard API for JSON binding.
I think you're overthinking this. You don't actually care about turning objects into Strings, you want to be able to serialize objects to different formats without knowing what that format is. But who says that different format is a String? What happens when you want your object to be available as a protocol buffer? That's a binary format, not a character format -- so stringify() won't help there. Ultimately, it's up to you to architect your application to be as independent as possible of those details.
XML and JSON are unrelated, so this is actually two questions:
For JSON, although "unofficial", a popular library is GSON.
For XML, see Blaise's answer
One popular JSON-to-Java binding library is Jackson
One popular XML-to-Java binding library is XStream
If you intend to use this in a web application, maybe you would like to consider Spring 3 MVC's facilities for this. Through annotations it does the conversion automatically and you can tell it whether you want XML or JSON (or various other formats). This might be the common interface you are looking for too.

How to serialize Java class into XML with specified Schema

I have a Joo.java class and I want to serialize it into XML using the schema
JooSchema.xsd.
Is it possible with Smooks API, how to do it?
I think that is better achieved with JAXB.

JAXB - Add a node to the XML as html link

I have a basic JavaBean in my service layer and originally it was not designed for marshalling. This object is used by both JAX-WS, JAX-RS, and Servlets in other layers of my application. I want to take advantage of a drill down type effect in my REST services so my question is: How do I make one of the fields/properties of the javabean appear in the xml as an HTML Link? Obviously I need to use CData. I cannot modify the original javabean by adding fields, etc. Is there an annotation I can use?
If I have in my class:
...
String data;
...
how do I make that(in xml):
<data><![CDATA[ValueOfData]]></data>
is this possible with JAXB and Annotations? Maybe xlink?
I suggest using a type adapter. These are normally used to adapt XML string values into more strongly-typed values like timestamps, but you can also use them to adapt strings to strings.
First, create a subclass of javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlAdapter. This class will have to implement marshal and unmarshal, converting to and from the value of your field, and the HTML fragment in the XML.
Once you have that, you can annotate your field with
#XmlJavaTypeAdapter(MyAdapter.class)
And that should be it.

Java object to XML schema

If you have a Java object and an XML schema (XSD), what is the best way to take that object and convert it into an xml file in line with the schema. The object and the schema do not know about each other (in that the java classes weren't created from the schema).
For example, in the class, there may be an integer field 'totalCountValue' which would correspond to an element called 'countTotal' in the xsd file. Is there a way of creating a mapping that will say "if the object contains an int totalCountValue, create an element called 'countTotal' and put it into the XML".
Similarly, there may be a field in the object that should be ignored, or a list in the object that should correspond to multiple XML elements.
I looked at XStream, but didn't see any (obvious) way of doing it. Are there other XML libraries that can simplify this task?
I believe this can be achieved via JAXB using it's annotations. I've usually found it much easier to generate Objects from JAXB ( as defined in your schema) using XJC than to map an existing Java object to match my schema. YMMV.
I'm doing Object do XML serialization with XStream. What don't you find "obvious" with this serializer? Once you get the hang of it its very simple.
In the example you provided you could have something like this:
...
XStream xstream = new XStream(new DomDriver());
xstream.alias("myclass", MyClass.class);
xstream.aliasField("countTotal", MyClass.class, "totalCountValue");
String xml = xstream.toXML(this);
...
for this sample class:
class MyClass {
private int totalCountValue;
public MyClass() {
}
}
If you find some serializer more simple or "cool" than this please share it with us. I'm also looking for a change...
Check the XStream mini tutorial here
I use a java library called JiBx to do this work. You need to write a mapping file (in XML) to describe how you want the XML Schema elements to map to the java objects. There are a couple of generator tools to help with automating the process. Plus it's really fast.
I tried out most of the libraries suggested in order to see which one is most suited to my needs. I also tried out a library that was not mentioned here, but suggested by a colleague, which was a StAX implementation called Woodstox.
Admittedly my testing was not complete for all of these libraries, but for the purpose mentioned in the question, I found Woodstox to be the best. It is fastest for marshalling (in my testing, beating XStream by around 30~40%). It is also fairly easy to use and control.
The drawback to this approach is that the XML created (since it is defined by me) needs to be run through a validator to ensure that it is correct with the schema.
You can use a library from Apache Commons called Betwixt. It can map a bean to XML and then back again if you need to round trip.
Take a look at JDOM.
I would say JAXB or Castor. I have found Castor to be easier to use and more reliable, but JAXB is the standard

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