Dynamic root element JAXB?

Question

I'm trying to integrate with a third-party system and depending on the type of object, the root element of the returned XML document changes. I am using the JAXB library for Marshalling/unmarshalling.

Root1:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root1 id='1'>
   <MOBILE>9831138683</MOBILE>
   <A>1</A>
   <B>2</B>
</root1>

Root2:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root2 id='3'>
   <MOBILE>9831138683</MOBILE>
   <specific-attr1>1</specific-attr1>
   <specific-attr2>2</specific-attr2>
</root2>

I am consuming all the different XML's mapping them to a generic object:

 @XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
@XmlRootElement(name = "ROW")
public class Row {

    @XmlAttribute
    private int id;
    @XmlElement(name = "MOBILE")
    private int mobileNo;

    @XmlMixed
    @XmlAnyElement
    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(MyMapAdapter.class)
    private Map<String, String> otherElements;
}

And the adapter for turning the uknown values into a map:

import org.w3c.dom.Document;
import org.w3c.dom.Element;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlAdapter;
import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

public class MyMapAdapter extends XmlAdapter<Element, Map<String, String>> {

    private Map<String, String> hashMap = new HashMap<>();

    @Override
    public Element marshal(Map<String, String> map) throws Exception {
        // expensive, but keeps the example simpler
        Document document = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder().newDocument();

        Element root = document.createElement("dynamic-elements");

        for(Map.Entry<String, String> entry : map.entrySet()) {
            Element element = document.createElement(entry.getKey());
            element.setTextContent(entry.getValue());
            root.appendChild(element);

        }

        return root;
    }


    @Override
    public Map<String, String> unmarshal(Element element) {
        String tagName = element.getTagName();
        String elementValue = element.getChildNodes().item(0).getNodeValue();
        hashMap.put(tagName, elementValue);

        return hashMap;
    }
}

This will put id and mobile number in the fields, and the rest, the unknown into a map.

This works if the Root Element is fixed to ROW as in the above example.

How to make this work such that root element will be different in each XML? A way to maybe just be agnostic to root element while unmarshalling ?

Answer 1

Forget about JAXB for this, and parse it yourself with StAX.

In the code below, I've changed field mobileNo from int to String, since value 9831138683 is too large for an int.

private static Row parse(String xml) throws XMLStreamException {
    XMLInputFactory xmlInputFactory = XMLInputFactory.newFactory();
    XMLStreamReader reader = xmlInputFactory.createXMLStreamReader(new StringReader(xml));
    reader.nextTag(); // read root element
    Row row = new Row(Integer.parseInt(reader.getAttributeValue(null, "id")));
    while (reader.nextTag() == XMLStreamConstants.START_ELEMENT) {
        String tagName = reader.getLocalName();
        if (tagName.equals("MOBILE")) {
            row.setMobileNo(reader.getElementText());
        } else {
            row.addOtherElement(tagName, reader.getElementText());
        }
    }
    return row;
}

public class Row {
    private int id;
    private String mobileNo;
    private Map<String, String> otherElements = new LinkedHashMap<>();

    public Row(int id) {
        this.id = id;
    }
    public void setMobileNo(String mobileNo) {
        this.mobileNo = mobileNo;
    }
    public void addOtherElement(String name, String value) {
        this.otherElements.put(name, value);
    }

    // getters here

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Row[id=" + this.id + ", mobileNo=" + this.mobileNo +
                 ", otherElements=" + this.otherElements + "]";
    }
}

Test

public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
    test("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n" +
         "<root1 id='1'>\n" +
         "   <MOBILE>9831138683</MOBILE>\n" +
         "   <A>1</A>\n" +
         "   <B>2</B>\n" +
         "</root1>");
    test("<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>\n" +
         "<root2 id='3'>\n" +
         "   <MOBILE>9831138683</MOBILE>\n" +
         "   <specific-attr1>1</specific-attr1>\n" +
         "   <specific-attr2>2</specific-attr2>\n" +
         "</root2>");
}
private static void test(String xml) throws XMLStreamException {
    System.out.println(parse(xml));
}

Output

Row[id=1, mobileNo=9831138683, otherElements={A=1, B=2}]
Row[id=3, mobileNo=9831138683, otherElements={specific-attr1=1, specific-attr2=2}]

Answer 2

I don't think there is a way to do what you are asking. In XML, the root node (the document) must have a defined element (or class). In other words xs:any only works for sub-elements. Even if there was a way to achieve this, this is a bad decision. Instead of creating a variable ("dynamic") root element, you should add a name attribute to the same element to distinguish the XML files. For example:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ROW id='1' name="me">
   <MOBILE>9831138683</MOBILE>
   <specific-attr1>1</specific-attr1>
   <specific-attr2>2</specific-attr2>
</ROW>


<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<ROW id='2' name="you">
   <MOBILE>123456790</MOBILE>
   <specific-attr1>3</specific-attr1>
   <specific-attr2>4</specific-attr2>
</ROW>

For this, all you need to do is add a name attribute to your existing element:

@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
@XmlRootElement(name = "ROW")
public class Row {

    @XmlAttribute
    private int id;

    @XmlAttribute(name = "name", required=true)
    private String name;

    @XmlElement(name = "MOBILE")
    private int mobileNo;

    @XmlMixed
    @XmlAnyElement
    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(MyMapAdapter.class)
    private Map<String, String> otherElements;
}