Which Java JSON libraries make good reuse of JAXB annotations? [closed]

Question

I am developing a project that already uses XML serialization, so I need an elegant solution to support JSON, by reusing the JAXB annotations.

Can anyone recommend some Java JSON libraries that makes a good reuse of JAXB annotations? Lightweight libraries are preferred.

Answer 1

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

Check out the JSON binding being added to EclipseLink JAXB (MOXy). Not only do we leverage the JAXB annotations we also leverage the runtime APIs:

package blog.json.twitter;

import java.util.Date;    
import javax.xml.bind.*;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource;

public class Demo {

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

        Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jc.createUnmarshaller();
        unmarshaller.setProperty("eclipselink.media.type", "application/json");
        StreamSource source = new StreamSource("http://search.twitter.com/search.json?q=jaxb");
        JAXBElement<SearchResults> jaxbElement = unmarshaller.unmarshal(source, SearchResults.class);

        Result result = new Result();
        result.setCreatedAt(new Date());
        result.setFromUser("bdoughan");
        result.setText("You can now use EclipseLink JAXB (MOXy) with JSON :)");
        jaxbElement.getValue().getResults().add(result);

        Marshaller marshaller = jc.createMarshaller();
        marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
        marshaller.setProperty("eclipselink.media.type", "application/json");
        marshaller.marshal(jaxbElement, System.out);
    }

}

• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2011/08/json-binding-with-eclipselink-moxy.html

In addition to the JAXB annotations MOXy extensions (such as @XmlPath) are supported making it even easier to have one annotated model that can be used for both XML and JSON:

• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2011/08/binding-to-json-xml-geocode-example.html?m=0

Answer 2

I'd Use Jackson. It seems to have good JAXB support out of the box.

Reference:

• Using JAXB annotations with Jackson