Polymorphism in a JAX-WS 2.1

Question

I will try and describe this problem by using simple examples - I would like to leverage the power of polymorphism in web services. Suppose I have a simple web service class with a set and get operation as below:
package wsserv;
import javax.jws.Oneway;
import javax.jws.WebMethod;
import javax.jws.WebParam;
import javax.jws.WebService;
@WebService
public class OptionService{
    private OptionBean option = new OptionBean(1, "Default Value");
    @WebMethod(operationName = "setOption")
    @Oneway
    public void setOption(@WebParam(name = "option") OptionBean option){
        this.option = option;
    @WebMethod(operationName = "getOption")
    public OptionBean getOption(){
        return option;
}And a simple bean to be accessible on the client and server, as below:
package wsserv;
import java.io.Serializable
public class OptionBean implements Serializable{
    private int id;
    private String label;
    public OptionBean(){
    public int getId()}{
        return id;
    public void setId(int id){
        this.id = id;
    public String getLabel(){
        return label;
    public void setLabel(String label){
        this.label = label;
}Deploying this as a web services allows the client to use instances of the OptionBean class - no problems there. Now suppose I do the following
package wsserv;
public class DescribedBean extends OptionBean{
    private String description;
    public String getDescription(){
        return description;
    public void setDescription(String description){
        this.description = description;
}OK, so this is my question: Is there any annotation I can place on this class to make it available to web service clients? If I define a method in the webservice:
    @WebMethod(operationName = "setDescribed")
    @Oneway
    public void setDescribed(@WebParam(name = "described") DescribedBean described){
        this.option = described;
    }then I can use instances of DescribedBean in the setOption and getOption methods. Ideally though, I do not want to have to add methods to the web service for every subclass of OptionBean that arises.
If there is no such annotation, then is there a way to manually update the XML schema produced, so that I can add in required subclasses there?
Thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

Answer 1

Try to use XmlSeeAlso annotation this way:
@XmlSeeAlso( value=DescribedBean.class )
public class OptionBean implements Serializable{
    private int id;
    private String label;
    public OptionBean(){
    public int getId()}{
        return id;
    public void setId(int id){
        this.id = id;
    public String getLabel(){
        return label;
    public void setLabel(String label){
        this.label = label;
}I hope your version of JAXB supports it. If I remember correctly this annotation is available since JAXB 2.1.x
Regards,
Slawomir Wojtasiak