JAXB

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XML Handling and manipulation

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XML and Jackson API

Chapter 1 Serialization – How to convert Java Objects to XML using Jackson API
Chapter 2 Deserialization – How to convert XML to Java Objects using Jackson API
Chapter 3 Jackson Annotations for XML – JacksonXmlRootElement

XML and JAXB

Chapter 4 Marsalling – How to convert Java Objects to XML using JAXB
Chapter 5 UnMarshalling- How to convert XML to Java Objects using JAXB
Chapter 6 @XmlElementWrapper Annotation for XML – JAXB
Chapter 7 XML Marshalling – Convert Java objects to XML using JAXB Version 3
Chapter 8 XML Unmarshalling – Convert XML to Java objects using JAXB Version 3

XML Parsing Using DOM

Chapter 9 How to read XML using Java DOM Parser
Chapter 10 How to retrieve XML Child Nodes in Java
Chapter 11 How to create XML Documents Using Java DOM Parser – NEW
Chapter 12 How to update XML Documents Using Java DOM Parser – NEW

XML Parsing and Validation in Rest Assured

Chapter 13 XmlPath in Rest Assured

vibssingh

UnMarshalling- How to convert XML to Java Objects using JAXB

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This tutorial explains how to use JAXB (Java Architecture for XML Binding) to convert an XML document to Java Objects.

The previous tutorial has explained the conversion of Java Objects to XML.

As of Java 11, JAXB is not part of the JRE anymore, and you need to configure the relevant libraries via your dependency management system, for example, either Maven or Gradle.

Configure the Java compiler level to be at least 11 and add the JAXB dependencies to your pom file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
 
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
 
  <groupId>org.example</groupId>
  <artifactId>JAXBDemo</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
 
  <name>JAXBDemo</name>
  <url>http://www.example.com</url>
 
  <properties>  
 
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
  </properties>
 
  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>4.13.2</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
  </dependency>
     
 <dependency>
    <groupId>com.sun.xml.bind</groupId>
    <artifactId>jaxb-impl</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.3</version>
   </dependency>
 </dependencies>
    
</project>

Sample XML Structure

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<EmployeeDetails>
    <firstName>Terry</firstName>
    <lastName>Mathew</lastName>
    <gender>female</gender>
    <age>30</age>
    <maritalStatus>married</maritalStatus>
    <designation>Manager</designation>
    <contactNumber>+919999988822</contactNumber>
    <emailId>abc@test.com</emailId>
    <GrossSalary>75000.0</GrossSalary>
</EmployeeDetails>

Un-marshalling provides a client application the ability to convert XML data into JAXB-derived Java objects.

Let’s see the steps to convert XML document into java object.

  1. Create POJO Class
  2. Create the JAXBContext object
  3. Create the Unmarshaller objects
  4. Call the unmarshal method
  5. Use getter methods of POJO to access the data

Now, let us create the Java Objects (POJO) for the above XML.

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

@XmlRootElement(name = "EmployeeDetails")
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)

//Define the order in which the fields are written in XML
@XmlType(propOrder = { "firstName", "lastName", "gender", "age", "maritalStatus", "designation", "contactNumber","emailId", "salary" })

public class Employee {

	private String firstName;
	private String lastName;
	private int age;

	@XmlElement(name = "GrossSalary")
	private double salary;
	private String designation;
	private String contactNumber;
	private String emailId;
	private String gender;
	private String maritalStatus;

	public Employee() {
		super();

	}

	// Getter and setter methods
	public String getFirstName() {
		return firstName;
	}

	public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
		this.firstName = firstName;
	}

	public String getLastName() {
		return lastName;
	}

	public void setLastName(String lastName) {
		this.lastName = lastName;
	}

	public int getAge() {
		return age;
	}

	public void setAge(int age) {
		this.age = age;
	}

	public double getSalary() {
		return salary;
	}

	public void setSalary(double salary) {
		this.salary = salary;
	}

	public String getDesignation() {
		return designation;
	}

	public void setDesignation(String designation) {
		this.designation = designation;
	}

	public String getContactNumber() {
		return contactNumber;
	}

	public void setContactNumber(String contactNumber) {
		this.contactNumber = contactNumber;
	}

	public String getEmailId() {
		return emailId;
	}

	public void setEmailId(String emailId) {
		this.emailId = emailId;
	}

	public String getGender() {
		return gender;
	}

	public void setGender(String gender) {
		this.gender = gender;
	}

	public String getMaritalStatus() {
		return maritalStatus;
	}

	public void setMaritalStatus(String maritalStatus) {
		this.maritalStatus = maritalStatus;
	}

	@Override
	public String toString() {
		return "Employee [FirstName=" + firstName + ", LastName=" + lastName + ", Age=" + age + ", Salary=" + salary
				+ ", Designation=" + designation + ", ContactNumber=" + contactNumber + ", EmailId=" + emailId
				+ ", Gender=" + gender + ", MaritalStatus=" + maritalStatus + "]";
	}
}

Create the following test program for reading the XML file. The XML file is present under src/test/resources.

Let’s use JAXB Unmarshaller to unmarshal our JAXB_XML back to a Java object:

import java.io.File;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBException;
import javax.xml.bind.Unmarshaller;
import org.junit.Test;

public class JAXBDeserialization {
	
	@Test
	public void JAXBUnmarshalTest() {

		try {

			String userDir = System.getProperty("user.dir");
			File file = new File(userDir + "\\src\\test\\resources\\JAXB_XML.xml");
			JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(Employee.class);

			Unmarshaller jaxbUnmarshaller = jaxbContext.createUnmarshaller();
			Employee employee = (Employee) jaxbUnmarshaller.unmarshal(file);

			System.out.println("FirstName: " + employee.getFirstName());
			System.out.println("LastName: " + employee.getLastName());
			System.out.println("Age: " + employee.getAge());
			System.out.println("Salary: " + employee.getSalary());
			System.out.println("Contact Number: " + employee.getContactNumber());
			System.out.println("Designation: " + employee.getDesignation());
			System.out.println("Gender: " + employee.getGender());
			System.out.println("EmailId: " + employee.getEmailId());
			System.out.println("MaritalStatus: " + employee.getMaritalStatus());

		} catch (JAXBException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}

	}

	}

When we run the code above, we may check the console output to verify that we have successfully converted XML data into a Java object:

The output of the above program is

There is another simple way of unmarshalling the XML to Java Objects.

    @Test
	public void JAXBUnmarshalTest1() {

		try {

			String userDir = System.getProperty("user.dir");
			File file = new File(userDir + "\\src\\test\\resources\\JAXB_XML.xml");

			JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(Employee.class);
			Unmarshaller jaxbUnmarshaller = jaxbContext.createUnmarshaller();
			Employee emp = (Employee) jaxbUnmarshaller.unmarshal(file);

			System.out.println(emp);

		} catch (JAXBException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();
		}
	}

When we run the code above, we may check the console output to verify that we have successfully converted XML data into a Java object:

The output of the above program is

We are done! Congratulations on making it through this tutorial and hope you found it useful! Happy Learning!!

vibssingh

Marshalling- How to convert Java Objects to XML using JAXB

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This tutorial explains how to use JAXB (Java Architecture for XML Binding) to convert Java Objects to XML documents.

JAXB provides a fast and convenient way to marshal (write) Java Objects into XML and un-marshal (read) XML into Java Objects. It supports a binding framework that maps XML elements and attributes to Java fields and properties using Java annotations.

With Java releases lower than Java 11, JAXB was part of the JVM and you could use it directly without defining additional libraries.

As of Java 11, JAXB is not part of the JRE anymore, and you need to configure the relevant libraries via your dependency management system, for example, either Maven or Gradle.

Configure the Java compiler level to be at least 11 and add the JAXB dependencies to your pom file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>org.example</groupId>
  <artifactId>JAXBDemo</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

  <name>JAXBDemo</name>
  <url>http://www.example.com</url>

  <properties>  
    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <maven.compiler.plugin.version>3.11.0</maven.compiler.plugin.version>
    <maven.surefire.plugin.version>3.2.1</maven.surefire.plugin.version>
    <maven.compiler.source>17</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>17</maven.compiler.target>
  </properties>

  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>4.13.2</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
  </dependency>
    
 <dependency>
    <groupId>com.sun.xml.bind</groupId>
    <artifactId>jaxb-impl</artifactId>
    <version>4.0.4</version>
   </dependency>
 </dependencies>
   
<build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-surefire-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${maven.surefire.plugin.version}</version>
        <configuration>
          <testFailureIgnore>true</testFailureIgnore>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>

      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
        <version>${maven.compiler.plugin.version}</version>
        <configuration>
          <source>${maven.compiler.source}</source>
          <target>${maven.compiler.target}</target>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

JAXB Annotations

  1. @XmlRootElement: Define the root element for an XML tree
  2. @XmlType: Define the order in which the fields are written in the XML file
  3. @XmlElement: Define the actual XML element name which will be used
  4. @XmlAttribute: Define the id field is mapped as an attribute instead of an element
  5. @XmlTransient: Annotate fields that we don’t want to be included in XML

Sample XML Structure

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<EmployeeDetails>
    <firstName>Vibha</firstName>
    <lastName>Singh</lastName>
    <gender>female</gender>
    <age>30</age>
    <maritalStatus>married</maritalStatus>
    <designation>Manager</designation>
    <contactNumber>+919999988822</contactNumber>
    <emailId>abc@test.com</emailId>
    <GrossSalary>75000.0</GrossSalary>
</EmployeeDetails>

Marshalling

Marshalling provides a client application the ability to convert a JAXB derived Java object tree into XML data.

Let’s see the steps to convert Java Objects into XML document.

  1. Create POJO Class of XML
  2. Create the JAXBContext object
  3. Create the Marshaller objects
  4. Create the content tree by using set methods
  5. Call the marshal method

Now, let us create the Java Objects (POJO).

import jakarta.xml.bind.annotation.*;

@XmlRootElement(name = "EmployeeDetails")
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)

//Define the order in which the fields are written in XML
@XmlType(propOrder = { "firstName", "lastName", "gender", "age", "maritalStatus", "designation", "contactNumber",
		"emailId", "salary" })

public class Employee {

	private String firstName;
	private String lastName;
	private int age;

    @XmlElement(name = "GrossSalary")
	private double salary;
	private String designation;
	private String contactNumber;
	private String emailId;
	private String gender;
	private String maritalStatus;

	// Getter and setter methods
	public String getFirstName() {
		return firstName;
	}

	public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
		this.firstName = firstName;
	}

	public String getLastName() {
		return lastName;
	}

	public void setLastName(String lastName) {
		this.lastName = lastName;
	}

	public int getAge() {
		return age;
	}

	public void setAge(int age) {
		this.age = age;
	}

	public double getSalary() {
		return salary;
	}

	public void setSalary(double salary) {
		this.salary = salary;
	}

	public String getDesignation() {
		return designation;
	}

	public void setDesignation(String designation) {
		this.designation = designation;
	}

	public String getContactNumber() {
		return contactNumber;
	}

	public void setContactNumber(String contactNumber) {
		this.contactNumber = contactNumber;
	}

	public String getEmailId() {
		return emailId;
	}

	public void setEmailId(String emailId) {
		this.emailId = emailId;
	}

	public String getGender() {
		return gender;
	}

	public void setGender(String gender) {
		this.gender = gender;
	}

	public String getMaritalStatus() {
		return maritalStatus;
	}

	public void setMaritalStatus(String maritalStatus) {
		this.maritalStatus = maritalStatus;
	}

   @Override
	public String toString() {
		return "Employee [FirstName=" + firstName + ", LastName=" + lastName + ", Age=" + age + ", Salary=" + salary
				+ ", Designation=" + designation + ", ContactNumber=" + contactNumber + ", EmailId=" + emailId
				+ ", Gender=" + gender + ", MaritalStatus=" + maritalStatus + "]";
	}
}

Create the following test program for writing the XML file.

import jakarta.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import jakarta.xml.bind.JAXBException;
import jakarta.xml.bind.Marshaller;
import jakarta.xml.bind.PropertyException;
import org.junit.Test;
import java.io.StringWriter;

public class SerializationDemo {

    @Test
    public void serializationTest1() {

        try {

            Employee employee = new Employee();

            employee.setFirstName("Terry");
            employee.setLastName("Mathew");
            employee.setAge(30);
            employee.setSalary(75000);
            employee.setDesignation("Manager");
            employee.setContactNumber("+919999988822");
            employee.setEmailId("abc@test.com");
            employee.setMaritalStatus("married");
            employee.setGender("female");

            // Create JAXB Context
            JAXBContext context = JAXBContext.newInstance(Employee.class);

            // Create Marshaller
            Marshaller jaxbMarshaller = context.createMarshaller();

            // Required formatting
            jaxbMarshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, Boolean.TRUE);

            // Write XML to StringWriter
            StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
            jaxbMarshaller.marshal(employee, sw);

            // Convert XML to String
            String xmlContent = sw.toString();
            System.out.println(xmlContent);

        } catch (PropertyException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();

        } catch (JAXBException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

When we run the code above, we may check the console output to verify that we have successfully converted Java object to XML:

By default, the Marshaller uses UTF-8 encoding when generating XML data.

The javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext class provides a client’s entry point to JAXB API. By default, JAXB does not format the XML document. This saves space and prevents that any white-space may accidentally be interpreted as significant.

To have JAXB format the output, we simply set the Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT property to true on the Marshaller. The marshal method uses an object and an output file where to store the generated XML as parameters.

You can see that we have used JAXB Annotations like @XMLRootElement are changed from Employee to EmployeeDetails.

The order of elements in the XML is defined by

@XmlType(propOrder = { "firstName", "lastName", "gender", "age", "maritalStatus", "designation", "contactNumber","emailId", "salary" })

@XMLElement has set the element name to GrossSalary from Salary.

The below example is the short way of writing the same test and saving XML. We need to add a constructor in the POJO class so that we can set the values to the variables through the Constructor.

import jakarta.xml.bind.annotation.*;

@XmlRootElement(name = "EmployeeDetails")
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)

//Define the order in which the fields are written in XML
@XmlType(propOrder = { "firstName", "lastName", "gender", "age", "maritalStatus", "designation", "contactNumber",
        "emailId", "salary" })

public class Employee {

    private String firstName;
    private String lastName;
    private int age;

    @XmlElement(name = "GrossSalary")
    private double salary;
    private String designation;
    private String contactNumber;
    private String emailId;
    private String gender;
    private String maritalStatus;

    public Employee() {
        super();

    }

    public Employee(String firstName, String lastName, int age, double salary, String designation, String contactNumber,
                    String emailId, String gender, String maritalStatus) {

        this.firstName = firstName;
        this.lastName = lastName;
        this.age = age;


        this.salary = salary;

        this.designation = designation;
        this.contactNumber = contactNumber;
        this.emailId = emailId;
        this.gender = gender;
        this.maritalStatus = maritalStatus;
    }

    // Getter and setter methods
    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }

    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }

    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }

    public void setLastName(String lastName) {
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }

    public int getAge() {
        return age;
    }

    public void setAge(int age) {
        this.age = age;
    }

    public double getSalary() {
        return salary;
    }

    public void setSalary(double salary) {
        this.salary = salary;
    }

    public String getDesignation() {
        return designation;
    }

    public void setDesignation(String designation) {
        this.designation = designation;
    }

    public String getContactNumber() {
        return contactNumber;
    }

    public void setContactNumber(String contactNumber) {
        this.contactNumber = contactNumber;
    }

    public String getEmailId() {
        return emailId;
    }

    public void setEmailId(String emailId) {
        this.emailId = emailId;
    }

    public String getGender() {
        return gender;
    }

    public void setGender(String gender) {
        this.gender = gender;
    }

    public String getMaritalStatus() {
        return maritalStatus;
    }

    public void setMaritalStatus(String maritalStatus) {
        this.maritalStatus = maritalStatus;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Employee [FirstName=" + firstName + ", LastName=" + lastName + ", Age=" + age + ", Salary=" + salary
                + ", Designation=" + designation + ", ContactNumber=" + contactNumber + ", EmailId=" + emailId
                + ", Gender=" + gender + ", MaritalStatus=" + maritalStatus + "]";
    }
}

The below JAXB example for XML marshalling convert Java objects into an XML.

import jakarta.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import jakarta.xml.bind.JAXBException;
import jakarta.xml.bind.Marshaller;
import jakarta.xml.bind.PropertyException;
import org.junit.Test;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.StringWriter;

public class SerializationDemo {


    @Test
    public void serializationTest2() {

        try {

            Employee employee = new Employee("Thomas", "Pawsey", 35, 100000, "Director", "+919999988822","Test@test.com", "married", "female");

            // Create JAXB Context
            JAXBContext context = JAXBContext.newInstance(Employee.class);

            // Create Marshaller
            Marshaller jaxbMarshaller = context.createMarshaller();

            // Required formatting
            jaxbMarshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, Boolean.TRUE);

            // Write XML to StringWriter
            StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
            jaxbMarshaller.marshal(employee, writer);

            // Convert XML to String
            String xmlContent = writer.toString();
            System.out.println(xmlContent);

            // Save the file
            String userDir = System.getProperty("user.dir");
            jaxbMarshaller.marshal(employee, new File(userDir + "\\src\\test\\resources\\JAXB_XML.xml"));
            System.out.println("File is saved");
            
        } catch (PropertyException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();

        } catch (JAXBException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

When we run the code above, we may check the console output to verify that we have successfully converted Java object to XML:

The XML is saved under src/test/resources. To see this file, after the execution of the test, you need to refresh the project.

Similarly, we can unmarshal an XML to Java Objects in the next tutorial.

We are done! Congratulations on making it through this tutorial and hope you found it useful! Happy Learning!!

vibssingh

@XmlElementWrapper Annotation for XML – JAXB

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The previous tutorials explain how to use JAXB(Java Architecture for XML Binding) to parse XML documents to Java objects and vice versa. This is also called Marshalling and Unmarshalling.

This tutorial explains @XmlElementWrapper Annotation.

Configure the Java compiler level to be at least 11 and add the JAXB dependencies to the pom file.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
  xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
  <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

  <groupId>org.example</groupId>
  <artifactId>JAXBDemo</artifactId>
  <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

  <name>JAXBDemo</name>
  <url>http://www.example.com</url>

  <properties>  

    <project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
    <maven.compiler.source>11</maven.compiler.source>
    <maven.compiler.target>11</maven.compiler.target>
  </properties>

  <dependencies>
    <dependency>
      <groupId>junit</groupId>
      <artifactId>junit</artifactId>
      <version>4.13.2</version>
      <scope>test</scope>
  </dependency>
    
 <dependency>
    <groupId>com.sun.xml.bind</groupId>
    <artifactId>jaxb-impl</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.3</version>
   </dependency>
 </dependencies>
   
</project>

@XmlElementWrapper generates a wrapper element around XML representation. This is primarily intended to be used to produce a wrapper XML element around collections.

This annotation can be used with the following annotations –  XmlElement, XmlElements, XmlElementRef, XmlElementRefs, XmlJavaTypeAdapter.

@XmlElementWrapper and @XmlElement (Wrapped collection)

Let us understand this with the help of an example shown below.

@XmlRootElement(name = "CustomerDetails")
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class Customer {

	private int id;

	private String name;
	private int yearOfBirth;
	private String emailId;
	private String streetAddress;

	private String postcode;

	@XmlElementWrapper(name = "emergencyContacts")
	@XmlElement(name = "Contact")
	private List<String> emergencyContacts;

	public Customer() {
		super();
	}

	public Customer(int id, String name, int yearOfBirth, String emailId, String streetAddress, String postcode,
			List<String> emergencyContacts) {
		super();
		this.id = id;
		this.name = name;
		this.yearOfBirth = yearOfBirth;
		this.emailId = emailId;
		this.streetAddress = streetAddress;
		this.postcode = postcode;
		this.emergencyContacts = emergencyContacts;
	}

	public int getId() {
		return id;
	}

	public void setId(int id) {
		this.id = id;
	}

	public String getName() {
		return name;
	}

	public void setName(String name) {
		this.name = name;
	}

	public int getYearOfBirth() {
		return yearOfBirth;
	}

	public void setYearOfBirth(int yearOfBirth) {
		this.yearOfBirth = yearOfBirth;
	}

	public String getEmailId() {
		return emailId;
	}

	public void setEmailId(String emailId) {
		this.emailId = emailId;
	}

	public String getStreetAddress() {
		return streetAddress;
	}

	public void setStreetAddress(String streetAddress) {
		this.streetAddress = streetAddress;
	}

	public String getPostcode() {
		return postcode;
	}

	public void setPostcode(String postcode) {
		this.postcode = postcode;
	}

	public List<String> getEmergencyContacts() {
		return emergencyContacts;
	}

	public void setEmergencyContacts(List<String> emergencyContacts) {
		this.emergencyContacts = emergencyContacts;
	}
}

Now, let us create a Test to convert these Java Objects to XML.

   @Test
	public void Test() {

		try {

			Customer cust = new Customer();
			cust.setId(1111);
			cust.setName("Tim");
			cust.setYearOfBirth(1988);
			cust.setEmailId("Test@test.com");
			cust.setStreetAddress("6, JaySmith, Dublin");
			cust.setPostcode("A12 YP22");

			cust.setEmergencyContacts(Arrays.asList("98675 12312", "88881 23415", "44123 67453"));

			// Create JAXB Context
			JAXBContext context = JAXBContext.newInstance(Customer.class);

			// Create Marshaller
			Marshaller jaxbMarshaller = context.createMarshaller();

			// Required formatting
			jaxbMarshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, Boolean.TRUE);

			// Write XML to StringWriter
			StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
			jaxbMarshaller.marshal(cust, sw);

			// Print XML Content
			String xmlContent = sw.toString();
			System.out.println(xmlContent);

		} catch (PropertyException e) {
			e.printStackTrace();

		} catch (JAXBException e) {

		}
	}

The output of the above program is

Here, contact is within emergencyContacts, because contact is @XmlElement.

Use Only @XmlElementWrapper

@XmlRootElement(name = "CustomerDetails")
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)

public class Customer {

	private int id;

	private String name;
	private int yearOfBirth;
	private String emailId;
	private String streetAddress;

	private String postcode;

	@XmlElementWrapper(name = "emergencyContacts")
 //	@XmlElement(name = "Contact") //Commented this
	private List<String> emergencyContacts;

	public Customer() {
		super();
	}

	public Customer(int id, String name, int yearOfBirth, String emailId, String streetAddress, String postcode,
			List<String> emergencyContacts) {
		super();
		this.id = id;
		this.name = name;
		this.yearOfBirth = yearOfBirth;
		this.emailId = emailId;
		this.streetAddress = streetAddress;
		this.postcode = postcode;
		this.emergencyContacts = emergencyContacts;
	}

The output of the above program is

Here, there is no contact within emergencyContacts, it is because there is no @XmlElement for contact.

Do not use @XmlElementWrapper (Unwrapped collection)

@XmlRootElement(name = "CustomerDetails")
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)

public class Customer {

	private int id;

	private String name;
	private int yearOfBirth;
	private String emailId;
	private String streetAddress;

	private String postcode;

 //@XmlElementWrapper(name = "emergencyContacts") Commented this
	@XmlElement(name = "Contact")
	private List<String> emergencyContacts;

	public Customer() {
		super();
	}

	public Customer(int id, String name, int yearOfBirth, String emailId, String streetAddress, String postcode,
			List<String> emergencyContacts) {
		super();
		this.id = id;
		this.name = name;
		this.yearOfBirth = yearOfBirth;
		this.emailId = emailId;
		this.streetAddress = streetAddress;
		this.postcode = postcode;
		this.emergencyContacts = emergencyContacts;
	}

The output of the above program is

Here, there is no @XmlElementWrapper. So, all the contact appear as attributes of XML.

I hope this has helped to understand the usage of @XmlElementWrapper.

We are done! Congratulations on making it through this tutorial and hope you found it useful! Happy Learning!!