How to add interface on autogenerated jaxb elements by xsdtojava?

Question

I want to add a super interface for a class autogenerated by jaxb and xsdtojava.

Problem: I can only add the interface on the root element (which I don't want, but just for testing purpose).

The element where I want to apply the inheritance is thelistelement.

The xsd I have not control of.

<xs:schema>
    <xs:element name="myRequest">
        <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
                <xs:element name="thelist">
                   <xs:complexType>
                      <xs:sequence>
                         <xs:element name="thelistelement" maxOccurs="unbounded">
                    ...

binding file:

<jaxb:bindings    
    xmlns:jaxb="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/jaxb"
    xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
    xmlns:xjc="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/jaxb/xjc"
    xmlns:inheritance="http://jaxb2-commons.dev.java.net/basic/inheritance"
    jaxb:extensionBindingPrefixes="xjc inheritance"
    jaxb:version="2.1">

    <!-- this works -->
    <jaxb:bindings schemaLocation="xsd/my.xsd">
        <jaxb:bindings node="//xs:element[@name='myRequest']">
                    <inheritance:implements>MyInterface</inheritance:implements>
        </jaxb:bindings>
    </jaxb:bindings>

    <!-- this does NOT work -->
    <jaxb:bindings schemaLocation="xsd/my.xsd">
        <jaxb:bindings node="//xs:element[@name='thelistelement']">
                    <inheritance:implements>MyInterface</inheritance:implements>
        </jaxb:bindings>
    </jaxb:bindings>
</jaxb:bindings>

Running with <extensionArg>-Xinheritance</extensionArg>.

Output should be:

...
List<Thelistelement> thelist;

class Thelistelement implements MyInterface {

}

But the interface is missing on the list element class. Why then does it work on the root element myRequest?

Answer 1

I had to add an /xs:complexType to the node. Don't know why that worked though.

Important to note the single slash before the complexType!

<jaxb:bindings schemaLocation="xsd/my.xsd">
    <jaxb:bindings node="//xs:element[@name='thelistelement']/xs:complexType">
                <inheritance:implements>MyInterface</inheritance:implements>
    </jaxb:bindings>
</jaxb:bindings>