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JAXB is a java framework to XML-Java transformations.

JAXB is 2.1 has a very simple API like castor and jibx And annotation driven transformers. Although those configurations can be written manually JAXB has a code generator to generate java files from XSD files. Here is sample JAXB tutorial using maven2:

1. extending project dependency

<!-- ....-->

javax.xml.bind
jaxb-api
2.1

com.sun.xml.bind
jaxb-impl
2.1.3

2. Adding jaxb2-mojo-plugin

org.codehaus.mojo
jaxb2-maven-plugin

xjc

com.example.myschema <!-- The name of your generated source package -->
${basedir}/src/main/generated-source

ref:http://mojo.codehaus.org/jaxb2-maven-plugin/xjc-mojo.html

3. adding your XSD files under /src/main/xsd
sample file: model1.xsd

4. generate your java file from XSD

mvn jaxb2:xjc

sample java code:
purchaseordertype.java

@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
@XmlType(name = "PurchaseOrderType", propOrder = {
"shipTo",
"billTo",
"comment",
"items"
})
public class PurchaseOrderType {

@XmlElement(required = true)
protected USAddress shipTo;
@XmlElement(required = true)
protected USAddress billTo;
protected String comment;
@XmlElement(required = true)
protected Items items;
@XmlAttribute

Items.java

@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
@XmlType(name = "", propOrder = {
"productName",
"quantity",
"usPrice",
"comment",
"shipDate"
})
public static class Item {

@XmlElement(required = true)
protected String productName;
protected int quantity;
@XmlElement(name = "USPrice", required = true)
protected BigDecimal usPrice;
protected String comment;
protected XMLGregorianCalendar shipDate;
@XmlAttribute(required = true)
protected String partNum;

5. And test your code

public class JAXBTest extends TestCase {
public void testMarshall() throws JAXBException {
JAXBContext jc = JAXBContext.newInstance("com.example.myschema");
ObjectFactory factory = new ObjectFactory();
PurchaseOrderType type = factory.createPurchaseOrderType();
type.setComment("comment");
Items items = factory.createItems();
Items.Item o = factory.createItemsItem();
o.setPartNum("test");
o.setComment("part comment");
o.setProductName("productname");
o.setQuantity(2);

items.getItem().add(o);
type.setItems(items);

JAXBElement element = factory.createPurchaseOrder(type);
Marshaller m = jc.createMarshaller();
m.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, Boolean.TRUE);
m.marshal(element, System.out);
}
}

and output is

comment

productname
2
part comment

Additional references:

jaxb2-maven-plugin/xjc-mojo
maven jaxb plugins
sun official jaxb reference

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