How to stop Marshaller class adding XML tag in my output file

Question

I am marshalling my Object in 2 separate steps. One adds Header and the other one adds the Body. Now when I use this code

marshaller.marshal(payload, writer); 
//payload is Objects name and writer is StringWriter class object

The XML tag, <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> is added twice in the final output file.

How can I not add the [<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>] XML tag second time when I am marshalling the body part??

I have used all the properties of Marshaller interface, but that did not help.

Answer 1

The solution to this problem was quite simpler than writing my own code.

You need to specify JAXB_FRAGMENT property to true on the Marshaller to avoid this problem. This property lets JAXB know it's marshalling into the middle of a document and that it shouldn't write the header.

So I kept below code, just before writing the BODY part :

marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FRAGMENT, true);

And it works like a charm!

Answer 2

You need to do the following:

1. Manually write the root element (not using JAXB)
2. Marshal the Header object. The root element should be the local root element for the header.
3. Marshal the Body object. The root element should be the local root element for the body.
4. Manually close the root element (not using JAXB)

If possible use a StAX XMLStreamWriter to do the manual writing and the marshalling. I have a related example on my blog:

• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2012/08/handle-middle-of-xml-document-with-jaxb.html

Note:

When you marshal into an XML document you must specify the following property on the Marshaller.

marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FRAGMENT, true);