SimpleXML: element with elements list or text

Question

I must parse a XML file that can be two types:

<property>
    <value>Some text</value>
</property>

and

<property>
    <value>
        <item id="first_id"/>
        <item id="second_id"/>
        <item id="third_id"/>
    </value>
</property>

How can I do this with Java?

I created a class:

@Root(strict = false)
public class PropertyValue {
    @ElementList(inline = true, required = false)
    private List<ItemData> items;

    @Text(required = false)
    private String text;
}

ItemData is item class.

But this does not work. The code gives me an exception:

org.simpleframework.xml.core.TextException: Text annotation @org.simpleframework.xml.Text(data=false, empty=, required=false) on field 'text' private java.lang.String PropertyValue.text used with elements in class PropertyValue

Answer 1

I did it using ElementList and entry

@ElementList(entry = "item", inline = true)

works for me without custom converter. Full class:

@Root(name = "property")
public class Property {
   @ElementList(entry = "item", inline = true, required = false)
   private List<Item> items;

   @Text(required = false)
   private String text;
}

Answer 2

I solved the problem!

I used the following question answer: Deserializing an XML tag with text AND subtags using Retrofit

I created a class that convert the XML files as I want (sorry for my code :-( ):

public class PropertyValueConverter implements Converter<PropertyValue> {
    @Override
    public PropertyValue read(InputNode node) throws Exception {
        PropertyValue propertyValue = new PropertyValue();
        List<ItemData> propertyValueItems = new ArrayList<>();
        String propertyValueText = "";

        InputNode itemNode = node.getNext("item");
        while (itemNode != null) {
            String itemId = itemNode.getAttribute("id").getValue();
            ItemData itemData = new ItemData();
            itemData.setId(itemId);
            propertyValueItems.add(itemData);
            itemNode = node.getNext("id");
        }

        if (propertyValueItems.size() == 0) {
            propertyValueText = node.getValue();
        }

        propertyValue.setItems(propertyValueItems);
        propertyValue.setText(propertyValueText);

        return propertyValue;
    }

    @Override
    public void write(OutputNode node, PropertyValue value) throws Exception {

    }
}

Then I changed PropertyValue class:

@Root(strict = false)
@Convert(value = PropertyValueConverter.class)
public class PropertyValue {
    private List<ItemData> items;

    private String text;

    public List<ItemData> getItems() {
        return items;
    }

    public void setItems(List<ItemData> items) {
        this.items = items;
    }

    public String getText() {
        return text;
    }

    public void setText(String text) {
        this.text = text;
    }
}

Then I set SimpleXml converter factory:

private static Strategy strategy = new AnnotationStrategy();
private static Serializer serializer = new Persister(strategy);

private static Retrofit.Builder builder =
        new Retrofit.Builder()
                .baseUrl(API_BASE_URL)
                .addConverterFactory(SimpleXmlConverterFactory.create(serializer));

So, It works for me.