How to remove some elements from XML file generated using JAXB?

Question

I have been trying to generate XML file from lists of object of type Customer class. Which i have done successfully.But the structure of my XML file is nested and i want to flatten it out.

Following is my XML file content:

<Customers>
<customer>
    <accessRole>
        <name>Customer Center</name>
        <internalId>14</internalId>
    </accessRole>
    <aging>0.0</aging>
    <category>
        <name>Individual</name>
        <internalId>2</internalId>
    </category>
    <companyName>Wolfe Electronics</companyName>
    <consolAging>0.0</consolAging>
    <consolBalance>0.0</consolBalance>
    <consolDepositBalance>0.0</consolDepositBalance>
    <consolOverdueBalance>0.0</consolOverdueBalance>
    <consolUnbilledOrders>2705.23</consolUnbilledOrders>
    <creditHoldOverride/>
    <dateCreated>2011-06-22T12:30:00+05:30</dateCreated>
    <defaultAddress>US</defaultAddress>
    <displaySymbol>$</displaySymbol>
    <email>suresh@ldbsystems.com</email>
    <emailPreference/>
    <emailTransactions>false</emailTransactions>
    <entityId>A Wolfe</entityId>
    <entityStatus>
        <name>CUSTOMER-Closed Won</name>
        <internalId>13</internalId>
    </entityStatus>
    <externalId>entity-5</externalId>
    <faxTransactions>false</faxTransactions>
    <firstName>A</firstName>
    <firstVisit>2012-02-25T05:43:18+05:30</firstVisit>
    <giveAccess>true</giveAccess>
    <globalSubscriptionStatus/>
    <internalId>-5</internalId>
    <isBudgetApproved>false</isBudgetApproved>
    <isInactive>false</isInactive>
    <isPerson>true</isPerson>
    <lastModifiedDate>2012-12-19T07:12:03+05:30</lastModifiedDate>
    <lastName>Wolfe</lastName>
    <lastPageVisited>login-register</lastPageVisited>
    <lastVisit>2013-02-23T06:10:44+05:30</lastVisit>
    <overrideCurrencyFormat>false</overrideCurrencyFormat>
    <phone>650-555-9788</phone>
    <priceLevel>
        <name>Employee Price</name>
        <internalId>3</internalId>
    </priceLevel>
    <printTransactions>false</printTransactions>
    <receivablesAccount>
        <name>Use System Preference</name>
        <internalId>-10</internalId>
    </receivablesAccount>
    <salesRep>
        <name>Clark Koozer</name>
        <internalId>23</internalId>
    </salesRep>
    <shipComplete>false</shipComplete>
    <stage/>
    <symbolPlacement/>
    <taxItem>
        <name>CA-SAN MATEO</name>
        <internalId>-112</internalId>
    </taxItem>
    <taxable>false</taxable>
    <unbilledOrders>2705.23</unbilledOrders>
    <visits>150</visits>
    <webLead>No</webLead>
</customer>
<customer>
    <accessRole>
        <name>Customer Center</name>
        <internalId>14</internalId>
    </accessRole>
    <aging>0.0</aging>
    <category>
        <name>Corporate</name>
        <internalId>1</internalId>
    </category>
    <consolAging>0.0</consolAging>
    <consolBalance>0.0</consolBalance>
    <consolDepositBalance>0.0</consolDepositBalance>
    <consolOverdueBalance>0.0</consolOverdueBalance>
    <consolUnbilledOrders>76.8</consolUnbilledOrders>
    <creditHoldOverride/>
    <customFieldList>
        <customField/>
    </customFieldList>
    <dateCreated>2011-06-26T12:30:00+05:30</dateCreated>
    <defaultAddress>Anderson Boughton Inc.&lt;br&gt;1488 Main&lt;br&gt;Apt 113&lt;br&gt;Seattle WA 98106&lt;br&gt;US</defaultAddress>
    <displaySymbol>$</displaySymbol>
    <email>boughton751@cscatering.com</email>
    <emailPreference/>
    <emailTransactions>false</emailTransactions>
    <entityId>Anderson Boughton Inc.</entityId>
    <entityStatus>
        <name>CUSTOMER-Closed Won</name>
        <internalId>13</internalId>
    </entityStatus>
    <faxTransactions>false</faxTransactions>
    <firstVisit>2012-07-12T01:30:49+05:30</firstVisit>
    <giveAccess>false</giveAccess>
    <globalSubscriptionStatus/>
    <internalId>75</internalId>
    <isBudgetApproved>false</isBudgetApproved>
    <isInactive>false</isInactive>
    <isPerson>false</isPerson>
    <lastModifiedDate>2012-12-19T11:50:14+05:30</lastModifiedDate>
    <lastPageVisited>HP xw4100</lastPageVisited>
    <lastVisit>2012-07-12T01:30:49+05:30</lastVisit>
    <leadSource>
        <name>Partner Referral</name>
        <internalId>99993</internalId>
    </leadSource>
    <overrideCurrencyFormat>false</overrideCurrencyFormat>
    <partner>
        <name>Online electronics</name>
        <internalId>171</internalId>
    </partner>
    <phone>206-555-1302</phone>
    <priceLevel>
        <name>Base Price</name>
        <internalId>1</internalId>
    </priceLevel>
    <printTransactions>false</printTransactions>
    <receivablesAccount>
        <name>Use System Preference</name>
        <internalId>-10</internalId>
    </receivablesAccount>
    <salesRep>
        <name>A Wolfe</name>
        <internalId>-5</internalId>
    </salesRep>
    <shipComplete>false</shipComplete>
    <stage/>
    <symbolPlacement/>
    <taxable>false</taxable>
    <unbilledOrders>76.8</unbilledOrders>
    <webLead>No</webLead>
</customer>
</Customers>

So i have nested structure for <accessRole> which i want to flatten out like <accessRole-name>and i don't want to display element like <internalId>.

Please find a code snippet of my model:

try {
             FileWriter fileWriter = new FileWriter ("D:\\adapter-framework\\Customer_XML.xml");
             JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(extractedRecordsArray[0].getClass());
             Marshaller jaxbMarshaller = jaxbContext.createMarshaller();
             fileWriter.append("<Customers>");
             fileWriter.append('\n');
             for(int i = 0; i < extractedRecordsArray.length - 761 ; i++)
             {          
                jaxbMarshaller.setProperty("com.sun.xml.bind.xmlDeclaration", Boolean.FALSE);
                jaxbMarshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
                //jaxbMarshaller.marshal(extractedRecordsArray[i],fileWriter);
                jaxbMarshaller.marshal(extractedRecordsArray[i],System.out);
                fileWriter.append('\n');
                AdapterLogger.debug(this.getClass().getName(), "Extracted record number : " + i);
             }        
            fileWriter.append("</Customers>");
            fileWriter.close();
          } catch (JAXBException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
           }

Please help me out if someone knows about it.

Thanks.

Removing the internalId part is easy. Just assign null to it and it won't appear in the XML. The other part is tricky and I don't know from the top of my head. — Burkhard, Jun 18 '13 at 12:11
Thanks @Burkhard for your reply (+1 for that) .But what if i have lots of attributes that i don't want in XML file ,then it will be very difficult to set all attribute with null value. — Heena Hussain, Jun 18 '13 at 12:16
You could mark the elements you do not want with @XmlTransient. Maybe this (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/5044042/jaxb-ignore-element) will help? — Burkhard, Jun 18 '13 at 12:46

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 18 '13 at 13:06

1

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

You can use the @XmlPath extension in MOXy to flatten the XML structure.

Customer

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

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

    @XmlPath(".")
    private AccessRole accessRole;

}

AccessRole

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;

@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class AccessRole {

    @XmlElement(name="accessRoleName")
    private String name;

}

For More Information

http://blog.bdoughan.com/2010/07/xpath-based-mapping.html

answered Jun 18 '13 at 13:06

bdoughan

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Thank you so much for you solution(+1).But i am not able to flatten out the structure using your solution maybe because my AccessRole class is inherited by BaseAccessRole class having property called `name` which is being used by AccessRole class. – Heena Hussain Jun 19 '13 at 07:37
Can you please help me further? – Heena Hussain Jun 19 '13 at 10:04
@HeenaHussain - Can you update your question to contain a domain model that represents your use case? – bdoughan Jun 19 '13 at 10:26
where i should keep my jaxb.properties file?At present i have kept it inside my project folder. – Heena Hussain Jun 19 '13 at 10:59
@HeenaHussain - The `jaxb.properties` file goes in the same package as the domain model: http://blog.bdoughan.com/2011/05/specifying-eclipselink-moxy-as-your.html. – bdoughan Jun 19 '13 at 11:14
I have placed `jaxb.properties` file at the right place but `@XmlPath` is still not working for me.Can you please help me out? – Heena Hussain Jun 19 '13 at 12:06
@HeenaHussain - Here is a link to a full example you can download and try out: https://github.com/bdoughan/blog20110322 – bdoughan Jun 19 '13 at 12:16

How to remove some elements from XML file generated using JAXB?

1 Answers1