In this example you’ll learn how to use the JAXB @XmlElementWrapper annotation. This annotation can be use to generate a wrapper element around an XML element representation. When no name defined, the @XmlElementWrapper annotation uses the property name as the wrapper element name. Let’s see the code snippet below.

package org.kodejava.example.jaxb;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAttribute;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElementWrapper;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

@XmlRootElement
public class Record {
    private Integer id;
    private String title;
    private List tracks = new ArrayList<>();

    @XmlAttribute
    public Integer getId() {
        return id;
    }

    public void setId(Integer id) {
        this.id = id;
    }

    public String getTitle() {
        return title;
    }

    public void setTitle(String title) {
        this.title = title;
    }

    @XmlElementWrapper(name = "trackList")
    @XmlElement(name = "track")
    public List getTracks() {
        return tracks;
    }

    public void setTracks(List tracks) {
        this.tracks = tracks;
    }
}

Below is the code snippet for marshaling the Record object into an XML document. Before the marshalling take place we create an object of Record and adds a some Tracks into it.

package org.kodejava.example.jaxb;

import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBException;
import javax.xml.bind.Marshaller;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.Writer;

public class JAXBElementWrapper {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Track track1 = new Track();
        track1.setId(1);
        track1.setTitle("Love Me Do");

        Track track2 = new Track();
        track2.setId(2);
        track2.setTitle("From Me To You");

        Track track3 = new Track();
        track3.setId(3);
        track3.setTitle("She Loves You");

        Record record = new Record();
        record.setId(1);
        record.setTitle("The Beatles 1");
        record.getTracks().add(track1);
        record.getTracks().add(track2);
        record.getTracks().add(track3);

        try {
            JAXBContext context = JAXBContext.newInstance(Record.class);
            Marshaller marshaller = context.createMarshaller();
            marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
            marshaller.marshal(record, System.out);

            Writer writer = null;
            try {
                writer = new FileWriter("Record.xml");
                marshaller.marshal(record, writer);
            } finally {
                if (writer != null) {
                    writer.close();
                }
            }
        } catch (JAXBException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

The above program will generated the following XML document.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<record id="1">
    <title>The Beatles 1</title>
    <trackList>
        <track id="1">
            <title>Love Me Do</title>
        </track>
        <track id="2">
            <title>From Me To You</title>
        </track>
        <track id="3">
            <title>She Loves You</title>
        </track>
    </trackList>
</record>

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Wayan Saryada

Programmer, runner, recreational diver, currently living in the island of Bali, Indonesia. Mostly programming in Java, creating web based application with Spring Framework, Hibernate / JPA.

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