Deserialize empty XML element using XStream

Question

In an XML stream i receive, I have the following statement

<user>
    <age/>
</user>

which is to be inserted in an object that looks like this :

@XStreamAlias("user")
public class User {

    public int age = 0;
}

Unfortunatly, I receive XStream exceptions each time I try to read this XML, as the age xml tag is empty :

Exception in thread "main" com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.ConversionException: For input string: "" : For input string: ""
---- Debugging information ----
message             : For input string: ""
cause-exception     : java.lang.NumberFormatException
cause-message       : For input string: ""
class               : java.lang.Integer
required-type       : java.lang.Integer
converter-type      : com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.SingleValueConverterWrapper
wrapped-converter   : com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.basic.IntConverter
path                : /GoodreadsResponse/user/age
line number         : 17
class[1]            : fr.riduidel.exporter.goodreads.User
converter-type[1]   : com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.ReflectionConverter
class[2]            : fr.riduidel.exporter.goodreads.GoodreadsResponse
version             : null
-------------------------------
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convert(TreeUnmarshaller.java:79)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.AbstractReferenceUnmarshaller.convert(AbstractReferenceUnmarshaller.java:65)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:66)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.AbstractReflectionConverter.unmarshallField(AbstractReflectionConverter.java:355)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.AbstractReflectionConverter.doUnmarshal(AbstractReflectionConverter.java:306)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.AbstractReflectionConverter.unmarshal(AbstractReflectionConverter.java:234)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convert(TreeUnmarshaller.java:72)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.AbstractReferenceUnmarshaller.convert(AbstractReferenceUnmarshaller.java:65)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:66)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:50)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.AbstractReflectionConverter.doUnmarshal(AbstractReflectionConverter.java:322)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.AbstractReflectionConverter.unmarshal(AbstractReflectionConverter.java:234)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convert(TreeUnmarshaller.java:72)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.AbstractReferenceUnmarshaller.convert(AbstractReferenceUnmarshaller.java:65)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:66)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.convertAnother(TreeUnmarshaller.java:50)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.TreeUnmarshaller.start(TreeUnmarshaller.java:134)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.core.AbstractTreeMarshallingStrategy.unmarshal(AbstractTreeMarshallingStrategy.java:32)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.unmarshal(XStream.java:1052)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.unmarshal(XStream.java:1036)
    at com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream.fromXML(XStream.java:921)

How can I tell XStream to consider this field as "optional" or "possibliy containing nothing" ?

Answer 1

Unforunately this is not as easy as it could be. There are two ways to do that you could:

• Write a transformation with xslt and apply it to the stream before you read it with XStream so that the xml matches your Java Beans or
• Write your own JavaBeanConverter and register it with XStream. This way you can define in detail how your xml is going to be mapped to your Java Beans. You can find a hint on howto register the JavaBeanConverter with XStream on this question.