Generate your JAXB classes in a second with xjc

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Since JAXB is part of the JDK, it is one of the most often used frameworks to process XML documents. It provides a comfortable way to retrieve and store data from XML documents to Java classes. As nearly every Java developer has already used JAXB, I will not explain the different JAXB annotations. Instead I will focus on a little command line tool called xjc and show you how to generate your binding classes based on an existing XSD schema description.

Implementing all binding classes for an existing XML interface can be a time consuming and tedious task. But the good news is, you do not need to do it. If you have a XSD schema description, you can use the xjc binding compiler to create the required classes. And even better, xjc is part of the JDK. So there is no need for external tools and you should always have it at hand if required.

Using xjc

As you can see in the snippet below, xjc support lots of options. The most important are

-d to define where the generated classes shall be stored in the file system,
-p to define the package to be used and of course
-help if you need anything else.

Usage: xjc [-options ...] <schema file/URL/dir/jar> ... [-b <bindinfo>] ...
If dir is specified, all schema files in it will be compiled.
If jar is specified, /META-INF/sun-jaxb.episode binding file will be compiled.
Options:
  -nv                :  do not perform strict validation of the input schema(s)
  -extension         :  allow vendor extensions - do not strictly follow the
                        Compatibility Rules and App E.2 from the JAXB Spec
  -b <file/dir>      :  specify external bindings files (each <file> must have its own -b)
                        If a directory is given, **/*.xjb is searched
  -d <dir>           :  generated files will go into this directory
  -p <pkg>           :  specifies the target package
  -httpproxy <proxy> :  set HTTP/HTTPS proxy. Format is [user[:password]@]proxyHost:proxyPort
  -httpproxyfile <f> :  Works like -httpproxy but takes the argument in a file to protect password
  -classpath <arg>   :  specify where to find user class files
  -catalog <file>    :  specify catalog files to resolve external entity references
                        support TR9401, XCatalog, and OASIS XML Catalog format.
  -readOnly          :  generated files will be in read-only mode
  -npa               :  suppress generation of package level annotations (**/package-info.java)
  -no-header         :  suppress generation of a file header with timestamp
  -target (2.0|2.1)  :  behave like XJC 2.0 or 2.1 and generate code that doesnt use any 2.2 features.
  -encoding <encoding> :  specify character encoding for generated source files
  -enableIntrospection :  enable correct generation of Boolean getters/setters to enable Bean Introspection apis
  -contentForWildcard  :  generates content property for types with multiple xs:any derived elements
  -xmlschema         :  treat input as W3C XML Schema (default)
  -relaxng           :  treat input as RELAX NG (experimental,unsupported)
  -relaxng-compact   :  treat input as RELAX NG compact syntax (experimental,unsupported)
  -dtd               :  treat input as XML DTD (experimental,unsupported)
  -wsdl              :  treat input as WSDL and compile schemas inside it (experimental,unsupported)
  -verbose           :  be extra verbose
  -quiet             :  suppress compiler output
  -help              :  display this help message
  -version           :  display version information
  -fullversion       :  display full version information


Extensions:
  -Xinject-code      :  inject specified Java code fragments into the generated code
  -Xlocator          :  enable source location support for generated code
  -Xsync-methods     :  generate accessor methods with the 'synchronized' keyword
  -mark-generated    :  mark the generated code as @javax.annotation.Generated
  -episode <FILE>    :  generate the episode file for separate compilation

Example

OK, so let’s have a look at an example. We will use the following XSD schema definition and xjc to generate the classes Author and Book with the described properties and required JAXB annotations.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<xs:schema version="1.0" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">

  <xs:element name="author" type="author"/>

  <xs:element name="book" type="book"/>

  <xs:complexType name="author">
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element name="firstName" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"/>
      <xs:element name="lastName" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"/>
    </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>

  <xs:complexType name="book">
    <xs:sequence>
      <xs:element ref="author" minOccurs="0"/>
      <xs:element name="pages" type="xs:int"/>
      <xs:element name="publicationDate" type="xs:dateTime" minOccurs="0"/>
      <xs:element name="title" type="xs:string" minOccurs="0"/>
    </xs:sequence>
  </xs:complexType>
</xs:schema>

The following command calls xjc and provides the target directory for the generated classes, the package and the XSD schema file.

xjc -d src -p blog.thoughts.on.java schema.xsd

parsing a schema...
compiling a schema...
blog\thoughts\on\java\Author.java
blog\thoughts\on\java\Book.java
blog\thoughts\on\java\ObjectFactory.java

OK, the operation completed successfully and we now have 3 generated classes in our src directory. That might be one more than some have expected. So lets have a look at each of them.

The classes Author and Book look like expected. They contain the properties described in the XSD schema and the required JAXB annotations.

//
// This file was generated by the JavaTM Architecture for XML Binding(JAXB) Reference Implementation, v2.2.4-2 
// See <a href="http://java.sun.com/xml/jaxb">http://java.sun.com/xml/jaxb</a> 
// Any modifications to this file will be lost upon recompilation of the source schema. 
// Generated on: 2014.01.13 at 07:38:24 PM CET 
//


package blog.thoughts.on.java;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessorType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlType;


/**
 * <p>Java class for author complex type.
 * 
 * <p>The following schema fragment specifies the expected content contained within this class.
 * 
 * <pre>
 * &lt;complexType name="author">
 *   &lt;complexContent>
 *     &lt;restriction base="{http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}anyType">
 *       &lt;sequence>
 *         &lt;element name="firstName" type="{http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}string" minOccurs="0"/>
 *         &lt;element name="lastName" type="{http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}string" minOccurs="0"/>
 *       &lt;/sequence>
 *     &lt;/restriction>
 *   &lt;/complexContent>
 * &lt;/complexType>
 * </pre>
 * 
 * 
 */
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
@XmlType(name = "author", propOrder = {
    "firstName",
    "lastName"
})
public class Author {

    protected String firstName;
    protected String lastName;

    /**
     * Gets the value of the firstName property.
     * 
     * @return
     *     possible object is
     *     {@link String }
     *     
     */
    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }

    /**
     * Sets the value of the firstName property.
     * 
     * @param value
     *     allowed object is
     *     {@link String }
     *     
     */
    public void setFirstName(String value) {
        this.firstName = value;
    }

    /**
     * Gets the value of the lastName property.
     * 
     * @return
     *     possible object is
     *     {@link String }
     *     
     */
    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }

    /**
     * Sets the value of the lastName property.
     * 
     * @param value
     *     allowed object is
     *     {@link String }
     *     
     */
    public void setLastName(String value) {
        this.lastName = value;
    }

}

//
// This file was generated by the JavaTM Architecture for XML Binding(JAXB) Reference Implementation, v2.2.4-2 
// See <a href="http://java.sun.com/xml/jaxb">http://java.sun.com/xml/jaxb</a> 
// Any modifications to this file will be lost upon recompilation of the source schema. 
// Generated on: 2014.01.13 at 07:38:24 PM CET 
//


package blog.thoughts.on.java;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessorType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlSchemaType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlType;
import javax.xml.datatype.XMLGregorianCalendar;


/**
 * <p>Java class for book complex type.
 * 
 * <p>The following schema fragment specifies the expected content contained within this class.
 * 
 * <pre>
 * &lt;complexType name="book">
 *   &lt;complexContent>
 *     &lt;restriction base="{http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}anyType">
 *       &lt;sequence>
 *         &lt;element ref="{}author" minOccurs="0"/>
 *         &lt;element name="pages" type="{http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}int"/>
 *         &lt;element name="publicationDate" type="{http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}dateTime" minOccurs="0"/>
 *         &lt;element name="title" type="{http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}string" minOccurs="0"/>
 *       &lt;/sequence>
 *     &lt;/restriction>
 *   &lt;/complexContent>
 * &lt;/complexType>
 * </pre>
 * 
 * 
 */
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
@XmlType(name = "book", propOrder = {
    "author",
    "pages",
    "publicationDate",
    "title"
})
public class Book {

    protected Author author;
    protected int pages;
    @XmlSchemaType(name = "dateTime")
    protected XMLGregorianCalendar publicationDate;
    protected String title;

    /**
     * Gets the value of the author property.
     * 
     * @return
     *     possible object is
     *     {@link Author }
     *     
     */
    public Author getAuthor() {
        return author;
    }

    /**
     * Sets the value of the author property.
     * 
     * @param value
     *     allowed object is
     *     {@link Author }
     *     
     */
    public void setAuthor(Author value) {
        this.author = value;
    }

    /**
     * Gets the value of the pages property.
     * 
     */
    public int getPages() {
        return pages;
    }

    /**
     * Sets the value of the pages property.
     * 
     */
    public void setPages(int value) {
        this.pages = value;
    }

    /**
     * Gets the value of the publicationDate property.
     * 
     * @return
     *     possible object is
     *     {@link XMLGregorianCalendar }
     *     
     */
    public XMLGregorianCalendar getPublicationDate() {
        return publicationDate;
    }

    /**
     * Sets the value of the publicationDate property.
     * 
     * @param value
     *     allowed object is
     *     {@link XMLGregorianCalendar }
     *     
     */
    public void setPublicationDate(XMLGregorianCalendar value) {
        this.publicationDate = value;
    }

    /**
     * Gets the value of the title property.
     * 
     * @return
     *     possible object is
     *     {@link String }
     *     
     */
    public String getTitle() {
        return title;
    }

    /**
     * Sets the value of the title property.
     * 
     * @param value
     *     allowed object is
     *     {@link String }
     *     
     */
    public void setTitle(String value) {
        this.title = value;
    }

}

The third and maybe unexpected class is the class ObjectFactory. It contains factory methods for each generated class or interface. This can be really useful if you need to create JAXBElement representations of your objects.

//
// This file was generated by the JavaTM Architecture for XML Binding(JAXB) Reference Implementation, v2.2.4-2 
// See <a href="http://java.sun.com/xml/jaxb">http://java.sun.com/xml/jaxb</a> 
// Any modifications to this file will be lost upon recompilation of the source schema. 
// Generated on: 2014.01.13 at 07:38:24 PM CET 
//


package blog.thoughts.on.java;

import javax.xml.bind.JAXBElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElementDecl;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRegistry;
import javax.xml.namespace.QName;


/**
 * This object contains factory methods for each 
 * Java content interface and Java element interface 
 * generated in the blog.thoughts.on.java package. 
 * <p>An ObjectFactory allows you to programatically 
 * construct new instances of the Java representation 
 * for XML content. The Java representation of XML 
 * content can consist of schema derived interfaces 
 * and classes representing the binding of schema 
 * type definitions, element declarations and model 
 * groups.  Factory methods for each of these are 
 * provided in this class.
 * 
 */
@XmlRegistry
public class ObjectFactory {

    private final static QName _Author_QNAME = new QName("", "author");
    private final static QName _Book_QNAME = new QName("", "book");

    /**
     * Create a new ObjectFactory that can be used to create new instances of schema derived classes for package: blog.thoughts.on.java
     * 
     */
    public ObjectFactory() {
    }

    /**
     * Create an instance of {@link Author }
     * 
     */
    public Author createAuthor() {
        return new Author();
    }

    /**
     * Create an instance of {@link Book }
     * 
     */
    public Book createBook() {
        return new Book();
    }

    /**
     * Create an instance of {@link JAXBElement }{@code <}{@link Author }{@code >}}
     * 
     */
    @XmlElementDecl(namespace = "", name = "author")
    public JAXBElement<Author> createAuthor(Author value) {
        return new JAXBElement<Author>(_Author_QNAME, Author.class, null, value);
    }

    /**
     * Create an instance of {@link JAXBElement }{@code <}{@link Book }{@code >}}
     * 
     */
    @XmlElementDecl(namespace = "", name = "book")
    public JAXBElement<Book> createBook(Book value) {
        return new JAXBElement<Book>(_Book_QNAME, Book.class, null, value);
    }

}

Conclusion

We had a look at xjc and used it to generated the required binding classes for an existing XSD schema definition. xjc generated a class for each complex type and an additional factory class to ease the creation of JAXBElement representations.

What do you think about xjc and the generated code? Please leave me a comment and tell me about it.
I think this tool generates very clean code and saves a lot of time. In most of the cases the generated code can be directly added to a project. But even if this is not the case, it is much faster to do some refactoring based on the generated code than doing everything myself.

7 Comments

daniel molina says:

at

Thanks man, great! I was fighting a couple of hours trying to do it from Eclipse JAXB with some error until I found your blog!
abc says:

at

Very helpful.
Jaynal Abedin Seikh says:

at

It’s very very helpful
Vicky says:

at

Helpful info.
For me it was exactly what I was searching for.

Thanks.
Basu says:

at

Thanks Thorben!
Mike says:

at

Thanks Thorben!

Is there a way to generate the classes automatically when schema gets changed like adding more complex-types etc.?
1. Thorben Janssen says:
  
  at
  
  Hi Mike,
  
  thanks for your question!
  
  You could probably run it as part of your build process. But that would be up to you and your build tool. At least I don’t know of any standard automation for it.
  
  Regards,
  Thorben

Comments are closed.

Generate your JAXB classes in a second with xjc

Using xjc

Example

Conclusion

Further Reading

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