JAXB Marshalling Unmarshalling with CDATA

Question

You could do the following:

AdapterCDATA

package forum14193944;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlAdapter;

public class AdapterCDATA extends XmlAdapter<String, String> {

    @Override
    public String marshal(String arg0) throws Exception {
        return "<![CDATA[" + arg0 + "]]>";
    }
    @Override
    public String unmarshal(String arg0) throws Exception {
        return arg0;
    }

}

Root

The @XmlJavaTypeAdapter annotation is used to specify that the XmlAdapter should be used.

package forum14193944;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlJavaTypeAdapter;

@XmlRootElement
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class Root {

    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(AdapterCDATA.class)
    private String name;

    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(AdapterCDATA.class)
    private String surname;

    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(AdapterCDATA.class)
    private String id;

}

Demo

I had to wrap System.out in an OutputStreamWriter to get the desired effect. Also note that setting a CharacterEscapeHandler means that it is responsible for all escape handling for that Marshaller.

package forum14193944;

import java.io.*;
import javax.xml.bind.*;
import com.sun.xml.bind.marshaller.*;

public class Demo {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        JAXBContext jc = JAXBContext.newInstance(Root.class);

        Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jc.createUnmarshaller();
        File xml = new File("src/forum14193944/input.xml");
        Root root = (Root) unmarshaller.unmarshal(xml);

        Marshaller marshaller = jc.createMarshaller();
        marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
        marshaller.setProperty(CharacterEscapeHandler.class.getName(),
                new CharacterEscapeHandler() {
                    @Override
                    public void escape(char[] ac, int i, int j, boolean flag,
                            Writer writer) throws IOException {
                        writer.write(ac, i, j);
                    }
                });
        marshaller.marshal(root, new OutputStreamWriter(System.out));
    }

}

input.xml/Output

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<root>
    <name><![CDATA[<h1>kshitij</h1>]]></name>
    <surname><![CDATA[<h1>solanki</h1>]]></surname>
    <id><![CDATA[0]]></id>
</root>

Please Note: I'm the EclipseLink JAXB (MOXy) lead and a member of the JAXB (JSR-222) expert group.

If you use MOXy as your JAXB (JSR-222) provider then you can leverage the @XmlCDATA extension for your use case.

Root

The @XmlCDATA annotation is used to indicate that you want the contents of a field/property wrapped in a CDATA section. The @XmlCDATA annotation can be used in combination with @XmlElement.

package forum14193944;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;
import org.eclipse.persistence.oxm.annotations.XmlCDATA;

@XmlRootElement
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class Root {

    @XmlCDATA
    private String name;

    @XmlCDATA
    private String surname;

    @XmlCDATA
    private String id;

}

jaxb.properties

To use MOXy as your JAXB provider you need to add file named jaxb.properties with the following entry.

javax.xml.bind.context.factory=org.eclipse.persistence.jaxb.JAXBContextFactory

Demo

Below is some demo code to prove that everything works.

package forum14193944;

import java.io.File;
import javax.xml.bind.*;

public class Demo {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        JAXBContext jc = JAXBContext.newInstance(Root.class);

        Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jc.createUnmarshaller();
        File xml = new File("src/forum14193944/input.xml");
        Root root = (Root) unmarshaller.unmarshal(xml);

        Marshaller marshaller = jc.createMarshaller();
        marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
        marshaller.marshal(root, System.out);
    }

}

input.xml/Output

Below is the input to and output from running the demo code.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<root>
   <name><![CDATA[<h1>kshitij</h1>]]></name>
   <surname><![CDATA[<h1>solanki</h1>]]></surname>
   <id><![CDATA[0]]></id>
</root>

For More Information

• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2010/07/cdata-cdata-run-run-data-run.html
• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2011/05/specifying-eclipselink-moxy-as-your.html

Sorry for digging out this question, and posting a new answer (my rep isn't high enough yet to comment...). I ran into the same issue, I tried Blaise Doughan's answer, but from my tests, either it doesn't cover all cases, either I'm doing something wrong somewhere.

    marshaller.setProperty(CharacterEscapeHandler.class.getName(),
                    new CharacterEscapeHandler() {
                        @Override
                        public void escape(char[] ac, int i, int j, boolean flag,
                                Writer writer) throws IOException {
                            writer.write(ac, i, j);
                        }
                    });

From my tests, this code removes all escaping, no matter if you are using the @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(AdapterCDATA.class) annotation on your attribute...

To fix that issue, I implemented the following CharacterEscapeHandler :

    public class CDataAwareUtfEncodedXmlCharacterEscapeHandler implements CharacterEscapeHandler {

        private static final char[] cDataPrefix = "<![CDATA[".toCharArray();
        private static final char[] cDataSuffix = "]]>".toCharArray();

        public static final CDataAwareUtfEncodedXmlCharacterEscapeHandler instance = new CDataAwareUtfEncodedXmlCharacterEscapeHandler();

        private CDataAwareUtfEncodedXmlCharacterEscapeHandler() {
        }

        @Override
        public void escape(char[] ch, int start, int length, boolean isAttVal, Writer out) throws IOException {
            boolean isCData = length > cDataPrefix.length + cDataSuffix.length;
            if (isCData) {
                for (int i = 0, j = start; i < cDataPrefix.length; ++i, ++j) {
                    if (cDataPrefix[i] != ch[j]) {
                        isCData = false;
                        break;
                    }
                }
                if (isCData) {
                    for (int i = cDataSuffix.length - 1, j = start + length - 1; i >= 0; --i, --j) {
                        if (cDataSuffix[i] != ch[j]) {
                            isCData = false;
                            break;
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            if (isCData) {
                out.write(ch, start, length);
            } else {
                MinimumEscapeHandler.theInstance.escape(ch, start, length, isAttVal, out);
            }
        }
    }

If your encoding is not UTF*, you may not want to call MinimumEscapeHandler but rather NioEscapeHandler or even DumbEscapeHandler.