Generation of XML file from Java objects using castor

Question

I have the following java file(Customer.java).
public class Customer
     private String ID;
     private FirstName firstName;
     private MiddleName middleName;
     private LastName lastName;
     private ArrayList address;
     public ArrayList getAddress() {
          return address;
     public void setAddress(ArrayList address) {
          this.address = address;
     public FirstName getFirstName() {
          return firstName;
     public void setFirstName(FirstName firstName) {
          this.firstName = firstName;
     public String getID() {
          return ID;
     public void setID(String id) {
          ID = id;
     public LastName getLastName() {
          return lastName;
     public void setLastName(LastName lastName) {
          this.lastName = lastName;
     public MiddleName getMiddleName() {
          return middleName;
     public void setMiddleName(MiddleName middleName) {
          this.middleName = middleName;
Using castor i have created an xml file(customer.xml) which has the following format.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
- <customer ID="fbs0001">
<FIRSTNAME>Fred</FIRSTNAME>
<MIDDLENAME>B</MIDDLENAME>
<LASTNAME>Scerbo</LASTNAME>
- <ADDRESS>
<FIRSTLINE>No 18, Sheshadri road</FIRSTLINE>
<SECONDLINE>Gandhinagar Bangalore</SECONDLINE>
</ADDRESS>
- <ADDRESS>
<FIRSTLINE>ITPL</FIRSTLINE>
<SECONDLINE>Whitefield Bangalore</SECONDLINE>
</ADDRESS>
</customer>
I have used a mapping file to get this output.Is there a way where i can get the output xml in the following format without changing the Java object structure.If yes then please suggest how this can be done.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
- <customer ID="fbs0001">
<FIRSTNAME>Fred</FIRSTNAME>
<MIDDLENAME>B</MIDDLENAME>
<LASTNAME>Scerbo</LASTNAME>
</customer>
<ADDRESS>
<FIRSTLINE>No 18, Sheshadri road</FIRSTLINE>
<SECONDLINE>Gandhinagar Bangalore</SECONDLINE>
</ADDRESS>
- <ADDRESS>
<FIRSTLINE>ITPL</FIRSTLINE>
<SECONDLINE>Whitefield Bangalore</SECONDLINE>
</ADDRESS>
I mean the output xml file should have the address as a separate tag not withing the root tag customer.

Answer 1

Hello,
Castor's own discussion groups might be able to point you to the solution you're looking for (if this use case is possible using Castor).
Oracle has its own object-to-XML mapping tool that is part of the TopLink product. It allows you to map existing objects to an existing XML Schema. This can be done visually using the TopLink Workbench, or programmatically using the TopLink APIs. TopLink OXM also supports the JAXB specification.
Using TopLink OXM to get the desired XML result I would recommend the following. Map the Customer and Address classes to XML, but don't map the relationship between Customer and Address. Then make the calls to the marshaller something like the following:
marshaller.marshal(aCustomer, System.out);
for(int x=0; x<aCustomer.getAddress().size(); x++) {
     marshal(aCustomer.getAddress().get(x), System.out);
Example - Using TopLink OXM to map an existing object model to an existing XML Schema:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/toplink/preview/10.1.3dp4/howto/ox/index.htm
For more information on TopLink object-to-XML mapping:
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/ias/toplink/preview/10.1.3dp4/objectxml/index.html
-Blaise