Jackson XML Annotations: String element with attribute

Question

I can't seem to find a way to make a Pojo Using the jackson-xml annotations that would generate xml like the following:

<Root>
    <Element1 ns="xxx">
        <Element2 ns="yyy">A String</Element2>
    </Element1>
</Root>

The closest I can seem to come is the following:

Root POJO:

public class Root {
    @JacksonXmlProperty(localName = "Element1")
    private Element1 element1;

    public String getElement1() {
        return element1;
    }

    public void setElement1(String element1) {
        this.element1 = element1;
    }
}

Element1 POJO:

public class Element1 {
    @JacksonXmlProperty(isAttribute = true)
    private String ns = "xxx";
    @JacksonXmlProperty(localName = "Element2")
    private Element2 element2;

    public String getElement2() {
        return element2;
    }

    public void setElement2(String element2) {
        this.element2 = element2;
    }
}

Element2 POJO:

public class Element2 {
    @JacksonXmlProperty(isAttribute = true)
    private String ns = "yyy";
    private String value;

    public String getValue() {
        return value;
    }

    public void setValue(String value) {
        this.value = value;
    }
}

But this returns back the following:

<Root>
    <Element1 ns="xxx">
        <Element2 ns="yyy"><value>A String</value></Element2>
    </Element1>
</Root>

The element tags around "A String" I do not want to display.

I'm curious as to why you're using Jackson-specific annotations and not JAXB annotations. Jackson is primarily a framework for producing JSON, not XML, and as such, misses some of the features of JAXB. — Ryan Ransford
– Ryan Ransford, Commented Nov 7, 2013 at 21:39

Ilya · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-07 21:38:06Z

78

You should use JacksonXmlText annotation for value field.

public class Element2 
{
    @JacksonXmlProperty(isAttribute = true)
    private String ns = "yyy";
    @JacksonXmlText
    private String value;

    public String getValue() {
        return value;
    }

    public void setValue(String value) {
        this.value = value;
    }
}

then XML will looks like

<Root>
    <Element1 ns="xxx">
        <Element2 ns="yyy">A String</Element2>
    </Element1>
</Root>

answered Nov 7, 2013 at 21:38

Ilya

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5 Comments

jtyler Over a year ago

Turns out I was importing from the wrong dependency, and getting and older version of the jackson-dataformat-xml where that annotation wasn't included :\

Vidya Over a year ago

Understandable. As fantastic as Jackson is, their documentation is horrendous. So it is very hard to find which versions are where and which annotations are available with those versions.

jtyler Over a year ago

I've definitely dug through their documentation before, and I know what you mean, but this one is definitely on me - Their dependency is blatantly mentioned on their github page: github.com/FasterXML/jackson-dataformat-xml. I was looking for the gradle dependency, and googled & pasted too fast.

mantri Over a year ago

@llya : Do we not need @JacksonXmlRootElement on Root class ?

cbmeeks Over a year ago

Awesome when someone provides EXACTLY what you were looking for. +1

Jean-François Fabre · Accepted Answer · 2023-03-22 22:49:18Z

6

To complement flyingAssistant's answer, you can't add @JacksonXmlText to a constructor property. This feature may be added in build 2.13 based off of this issue reported in the GitHub repository. So for now you'll have to do this

data class Element2(@field:JacksonXmlProperty(isAttribute = true) val ns: String = "yyy") {
    @field:JacksonXmlText
    val value: String? = null
}

edited Mar 22, 2023 at 22:49

Jean-François Fabre♦

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answered Jun 4, 2021 at 21:21

JC Castano

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1 Comment

majuran Feb 12 at 0:34

Thanks man, you saved my time, eventhough thousands ChatGPT like helps comes, human helps is inevitable

flyingAssistant · Accepted Answer · 2021-02-16 10:56:19Z

4

For Kotlin, you need to use @field annotation use-site targets:

data class Element2(
        @field:JacksonXmlProperty(isAttribute = true)
        val ns: String = "yyy",
        @field:JacksonXmlText
        val value: String? = null
)

If you don't like defining initial values for ns and value properties by yourself then use Kotlin no-args plugin, which generates a default constructor instead.

answered Feb 16, 2021 at 10:56

flyingAssistant

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