JAXB Marshalling Example: Converting Object into XML

By the help of Marshaller interface, we can marshal(write) the object into xml document. In the previous page, we have seen the simple example of converting object into xml.

In this example, we are going to convert the object into xml having primitives, strings and collection objects.

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

Create POJO or bind the schema and generate the classes
Create the JAXBContext object
Create the Marshaller objects
Create the content tree by using set methods
Call the marshal method

File: Question.java

import java.util.List;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAttribute;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement
public class Question {
private int id;
private String questionname;
private List<Answer> answers;
public Question() {}
public Question(int id, String questionname, List<Answer> answers) {
	super();
	this.id = id;
	this.questionname = questionname;
	this.answers = answers;
}
@XmlAttribute
public int getId() {
	return id;
}
public void setId(int id) {
	this.id = id;
}
@XmlElement
public String getQuestionname() {
	return questionname;
}
public void setQuestionname(String questionname) {
	this.questionname = questionname;
}
@XmlElement
public List<Answer> getAnswers() {
	return answers;
}
public void setAnswers(List<Answer> answers) {
	this.answers = answers;
}
}

File: Answer.java

public class Answer {
private int id;
private String answername;
private String postedby;
public Answer() {}
public Answer(int id, String answername, String postedby) {
	super();
	this.id = id;
	this.answername = answername;
	this.postedby = postedby;
}
public int getId() {
	return id;
}
public void setId(int id) {
	this.id = id;
}
public String getAnswername() {
	return answername;
}
public void setAnswername(String answername) {
	this.answername = answername;
}
public String getPostedby() {
	return postedby;
}
public void setPostedby(String postedby) {
	this.postedby = postedby;
}

}

File: ObjectToXml.java

import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.util.ArrayList;

import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import javax.xml.bind.Marshaller;


public class ObjectToXml {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception{
	JAXBContext contextObj = JAXBContext.newInstance(Question.class);

    Marshaller marshallerObj = contextObj.createMarshaller();
    marshallerObj.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);

    Answer ans1=new Answer(101,"java is a programming language","ravi");
    Answer ans2=new Answer(102,"java is a platform","john");
    
    ArrayList<Answer> list=new ArrayList<Answer>();
    list.add(ans1);
    list.add(ans2);
    
    Question que=new Question(1,"What is java?",list);
    marshallerObj.marshal(que, new FileOutputStream("question.xml"));
     
}
}

Output:

The generated xml file will look like this:

File: question.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<question id="1">
    <answers>
        <answername>java is a programming language</answername>
        <id>101</id>
        <postedby>ravi</postedby>
    </answers>
    <answers>
        <answername>java is a platform</answername>
        <id>102</id>
        <postedby>john</postedby>
    </answers>
    <questionname>What is java?</questionname>
</question>

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