jaxb Unmarshalling date

Question

is there any simple way for unmarshalling Dates to Java Date.

for an example suppose we have folowing xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<msg>
<type>SCH</type>
<msgName>SCHEvent</msgName>
<eventName>BST001</eventName>
<startDatetime>2012-09-12 11:00:00</startDatetime>
<endDatetime>2012-09-12 11:30:00</endDatetime>

</hl7msg>

and i want to unmarsl this xml in to following POJO

@XmlRootElement(name = "msg")
public class SCHEvent {

Date startDatetime;
Date endDatetime;
----
}

i tried above unmarshaling and i found that all other properties get assigned to this pojo except the dates. I think we can fix this using XmlAdapter, but this requires additional class to create. is there any simple way of translating this xml text dates in to Java Dates?

Answer 1

JAXB (JSR-222) implementations do support java.util.Date without an XmlAdapter as long as the value matches the XML Schema dateTime format (see: http://blog.bdoughan.com/2011/01/jaxb-and-datetime-properties.html. Your example does not match this format so you will need to use an XmlAdapter.

Example XmlAdapter

For an example of what the XmlAdapter would look like see my answer to a similar Stack Overflow question:

• jaxb unmarshal timestamp

Applying the XmlAdapter to All Instances of java.util.Date

If you use the @XmlJavaTypeAdapter annotation at the package level, then it will apply to all fields/properties of that type within that package.

• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2012/02/jaxb-and-package-level-xmladapters.html
• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2011/05/jaxb-and-joda-time-dates-and-times.html

---

JAXB AND FAULT TOLERANCE

In the JAXB (JSR-222) expert groups experience a significant percentage of documents do not match their corresponding XML so we decided by default not to fail each time an error was encountered. You can access the errors by specifying a ValidationEventHandler on the Unmarshaller by doing something like the following to see the errors.

Demo

package forum12400173;

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

public class Demo {

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

        File xml = new File("src/forum12400173/input.xml");
        Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jc.createUnmarshaller();
        unmarshaller.setEventHandler(new ValidationEventHandler() {

            @Override
            public boolean handleEvent(ValidationEvent event) {
                event.getLinkedException().printStackTrace();
                return true;
            }

        });
        SCHEvent event = (SCHEvent)  unmarshaller.unmarshal(xml);
    }

}

Output (JAXB-RI)

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: 2012-09-12 11:00:00
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.datatype.XMLGregorianCalendarImpl$Parser.parse(XMLGregorianCalendarImpl.java:2823)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.datatype.XMLGregorianCalendarImpl.<init>(XMLGregorianCalendarImpl.java:435)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.datatype.DatatypeFactoryImpl.newXMLGregorianCalendar(DatatypeFactoryImpl.java:536)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.DatatypeConverterImpl._parseDateTime(DatatypeConverterImpl.java:355)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.model.impl.RuntimeBuiltinLeafInfoImpl$4.parse(RuntimeBuiltinLeafInfoImpl.java:273)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.model.impl.RuntimeBuiltinLeafInfoImpl$4.parse(RuntimeBuiltinLeafInfoImpl.java:271)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.reflect.TransducedAccessor$CompositeTransducedAccessorImpl.parse(TransducedAccessor.java:232)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.LeafPropertyLoader.text(LeafPropertyLoader.java:50)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallingContext.text(UnmarshallingContext.java:499)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.SAXConnector.processText(SAXConnector.java:166)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.SAXConnector.endElement(SAXConnector.java:139)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.endElement(AbstractSAXParser.java:606)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanEndElement(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:1742)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDriver.next(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:2900)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl.next(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:607)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.next(XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.java:116)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:489)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:835)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:764)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:123)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(AbstractSAXParser.java:1210)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(SAXParserImpl.java:568)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal0(UnmarshallerImpl.java:203)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(UnmarshallerImpl.java:175)
    at javax.xml.bind.helpers.AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.java:157)
    at javax.xml.bind.helpers.AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.java:162)
    at javax.xml.bind.helpers.AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.java:171)
    at javax.xml.bind.helpers.AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.java:189)
    at forum12400173.Demo.main(Demo.java:22)
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: 2012-09-12 11:30:00
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.datatype.XMLGregorianCalendarImpl$Parser.parse(XMLGregorianCalendarImpl.java:2823)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.datatype.XMLGregorianCalendarImpl.<init>(XMLGregorianCalendarImpl.java:435)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.datatype.DatatypeFactoryImpl.newXMLGregorianCalendar(DatatypeFactoryImpl.java:536)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.DatatypeConverterImpl._parseDateTime(DatatypeConverterImpl.java:355)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.model.impl.RuntimeBuiltinLeafInfoImpl$4.parse(RuntimeBuiltinLeafInfoImpl.java:273)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.model.impl.RuntimeBuiltinLeafInfoImpl$4.parse(RuntimeBuiltinLeafInfoImpl.java:271)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.reflect.TransducedAccessor$CompositeTransducedAccessorImpl.parse(TransducedAccessor.java:232)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.LeafPropertyLoader.text(LeafPropertyLoader.java:50)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallingContext.text(UnmarshallingContext.java:499)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.SAXConnector.processText(SAXConnector.java:166)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.SAXConnector.endElement(SAXConnector.java:139)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.endElement(AbstractSAXParser.java:606)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanEndElement(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:1742)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDriver.next(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:2900)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl.next(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:607)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.next(XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.java:116)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:489)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:835)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:764)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:123)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(AbstractSAXParser.java:1210)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(SAXParserImpl.java:568)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal0(UnmarshallerImpl.java:203)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(UnmarshallerImpl.java:175)
    at javax.xml.bind.helpers.AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.java:157)
    at javax.xml.bind.helpers.AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.java:162)
    at javax.xml.bind.helpers.AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.java:171)
    at javax.xml.bind.helpers.AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.java:189)
    at forum12400173.Demo.main(Demo.java:22)