JAXB

The Java™ Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB) provides an API and tools that automate the mapping between XML documents and Java objects.

The JAXB framework enables developers to perform the following operations:

Unmarshal XML content into a Java representation
Access and update the Java representation
Marshal the Java representation of the XML content into XML content

JAXB gives Java developers an efficient and standard way of mapping between XML and Java code. Java developers using JAXB are more productive because they can write less code themselves and do not have to be experts in XML. JAXB makes it easier for developers to extend their applications with XML and Web Services technologies.

Documentation

Documentation for this release consists of the following:

Licensing and Governance

JAXB is licensed under Eclipse Distribution License v. 1.0, which is available at http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/edl-v10.php.

We use GlassFish Governance Policy, which means we can only accept contributions under the terms of OCA.

Build instructions

JavaSE 11 and Maven 3.3.9 are required to build JAXB. Simply run mvn clean install inside jaxb-ri subdirectory.

There are three projects inside JAXB repository which are JAXB dependencies, but are not part of the main build:

jaxb-ri/codemodel: Codemodel is an independent library for java code generation, which is released separately and integrated in JAXB. Besides JAXB it is used in istack-commons-project, which in turn is a dependency of JAXB
jaxb-ri/xsom: XML Schema Object Model (XSOM) is a Java library that allows applications to easily parse XML Schema documents and inspect information in them. It is released separately because it is a dependency of jaxb-fi, which in turn is a dependency of JAXB
jaxb-ri/external: RNGOM and relaxng-datatype under jaxb-ri/external are tools for working with RelaxNG. It is released separately because it is a dependency of several jaxb-ri projects including jaxb-ri/xsom above.

Using JAXB with Maven

Maven coordinates for JAXB artifacts

jakarta.xml.bind:jakarta.xml.bind-api: API classes for JAXB. Required to compile against JAXB.
org.glassfish.jaxb:jaxb-runtime: Implementation of JAXB, runtime used for serialization and deserialization java objects to/from xml.
org.glassfish.jaxb:jaxb-xjc: Tool to generate JAXB java sources from XML representation.
org.glassfish.jaxb:jaxb-jxc: Tool to generate XML schema from JAXB java sources.

JAXB fat-jar bundles:

com.sun.xml.bind:jaxb-impl: JAXB runtime fat jar.
com.sun.xml.bind:jaxb-xjc: Class generation tool fat jar.
com.sun.xml.bind:jaxb-xjc: Schema generation tool fat jar.

In contrast to org.glassfish.jaxb artifacts, these jars have all dependency classes included inside. These artifacts does not contain JPMS module descriptors. In Maven projects org.glassfish.jaxb artifacts are supposed to be used instead.

Binary distribution:

com.sun.xml.bind:jaxb-ri: Zip distribution containing tooling scripts and all dependency jars in one archive.

Old fashioned zip archive distribution.

Examples

JAXB API and Runtime

Minimum requirement to compile is jaxb-api. If application is running on an environment where JAXB runtime is provided, jaxb-api is all that is needed.

<!-- API -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>jakarta.xml.bind</groupId>
    <artifactId>jakarta.xml.bind-api</artifactId>
    <version>${jaxb.version}</version>
</dependency>

If application needs to include the runtime, e.g. running standalone on JavaSE jaxb-runtime should be also included.

<!-- API -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>jakarta.xml.bind</groupId>
    <artifactId>jakarta.xml.bind-api</artifactId>
    <version>${jaxb.version}</version>
</dependency>

<!-- Runtime -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.glassfish.jaxb</groupId>
    <artifactId>jaxb-runtime</artifactId>
    <version>${jaxb.version}</version>
</dependency>

Using JAXB tools with Maven

To generate JAXB classes from schema in Maven project, a community maven-jaxb2-plugin can be used.

<build>
    <plugins>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.jvnet.jaxb2.maven2</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-jaxb2-plugin</artifactId>
            <executions>
                <execution>
                    <id>generate</id>
                    <goals>
                        <goal>generate</goal>
                    </goals>
                </execution>
            </executions>
        </plugin>
    </plugins>
</build>

See the maven-jaxb2-plugin documentation for configuration details.

Alternatively there are tooling artifacts jaxb-xjc and jaxb-jxc, which can be invoked manually.

<!-- Tooling dependencies -->
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.glassfish.jaxb</groupId>
    <artifactId>jaxb-xjc</artifactId>
    <version>${jaxb.version}</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>org.glassfish.jaxb</groupId>
    <artifactId>jaxb-jxc</artifactId>
    <version>${jaxb.version}</version>
</dependency>

<!-- Invoke tooling API (on JavaSE 11) -->
<plugin>
    <groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
    <artifactId>exec-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        
        <!-- Generate java sources from schema -->
        <execution>
            <id>xjc</id>
            <goals>
                <goal>exec</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <executable>java</executable>
                <arguments>
                    <argument>--module-path</argument>
                    <modulepath/>
                    <argument>-m</argument>
                    <argument>com.sun.tools.xjc/com.sun.tools.xjc.XJCFacade</argument>
                    <argument>-p</argument>
                    <argument>com.example</argument>
                    <argument>-d</argument>
                    <argument>${project.build.directory}/generated-sources</argument>
                    <argument>${project.build.directory}/classes/schema.xsd</argument>
                </arguments>
            </configuration>
        </execution>

        <!-- Generate XML Schema from sources -->
        <execution>
            <id>jxc</id>
            <goals>
                <goal>exec</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <executable>java</executable>
                <arguments>
                    <argument>--module-path</argument>
                    <modulepath/>
                    <argument>-m</argument>
                    <argument>com.sun.tools.jxc/com.sun.tools.jxc.SchemaGeneratorFacade</argument>
                    <argument>-d</argument>
                    <argument>${project.build.directory}/generated-sources</argument>
                    <argument>${project.build.directory}/classes/com/example/Author.java</argument>
                    <argument>${project.build.directory}/classes/com/example/Book.java</argument>
                </arguments>
                <longModulepath>false</longModulepath>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

Using JAXB tools with Ant

Running the binding compiler (XJC): XJC, XJC Ant Task
Running the schema generator (schemagen): SchemaGen, SchemaGen Ant Task

XJC and Schemagen command line scripts

Where are schemagen and xjc command line scripts available in JavaSE prior to 11? These are included only in the JAXB zip distribution.

bravehorsie / jaxb-ri