XMLAdapter for HashMap

Question

I want to convert a list of items inside of my payaload and convert them into a hashmap. Basically, what I have is an Item xml representation which have a list of ItemID. Each ItemID has an idType in it. However, inside my Item class, i want these ItemIDs to be represented as a Map.

HashMap<ItemIDType, ItemID>

The incoming payload will represent this as a list

<Item>...
    <ItemIDs>
       <ItemID type="external" id="XYZ"/>
       <ItemID type="internal" id="20011"/>
    </ItemIDs>
</Item>

but I want an adapter that will convert this into a HashMap

"external" => "xyz"
"internal" => "20011"

I am right now using a LinkedList

public class MapHashMapListAdapter extends XmlAdapter<LinkedList<ItemID>, Map<ItemIDType, ItemID>> {

     public LinkedList<ItemID> marshal(final Map<ItemIDType, ItemID> v) throws Exception { ... }

     public Map<ItemIDType, ItemID> unmarshal(final LinkedList<ItemID> v) throws Exception { ... }

}

but for some reason when my payload gets converted, it fails to convert the list into a hashmap. The incoming LinkedList of the method unmarshal is an empty list. Do you guys have any idea what I am doing wrong here? Do I need to create my own data type here to handle the LinkedList?

Answer 1

Instead of converting the Map to a LinkedList you need to convert it to a domain object.

import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Map.Entry;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlAdapter;

public final class MyMapAdapter extends

   XmlAdapter<MyMapType,Map<Integer, String>> {

   @Override
   public MyMapType marshal(Map<Integer, String> arg0) throws Exception {
      MyMapType myMapType = new MyMapType();
      for(Entry<Integer, String> entry : arg0.entrySet()) {
         MyMapEntryType myMapEntryType =
            new MyMapEntryType();
         myMapEntryType.key = entry.getKey();
         myMapEntryType.value = entry.getValue();
         myMapType.entry.add(myMapEntryType);
      }
      return myMapType;
   }

   @Override
   public Map<Integer, String> unmarshal(MyMapType arg0) throws Exception {
      HashMap<Integer, String> hashMap = new HashMap<Integer, String>();
      for(MyMapEntryType myEntryType : arg0.entry) {
         hashMap.put(myEntryType.key, myEntryType.value);
      }
      return hashMap;
   }

}

For More Information

• http://blog.bdoughan.com/2010/07/xmladapter-jaxbs-secret-weapon.html