Serializing Java Bean to XML

Question

I would like to know if it is possible with XMLBeans to convert existing java beans to XML.
I learnt by going trhu' few materials of XMLBeans that we need to create bean classes from XSD and can use these classes for marshalling/unmarshalling.
But I have java beans already defined which I want to serialize/deserialize to/from XML.
Thanks in advance.
--Ramu                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           

Answer 1

If you are not interested in writing a bunch of code (which is probably the case), I know of a couple options for WLS 8.1:
1. Use the "undocumented" and "unsupported" java2xsd class, in the %WL_HOME%\server\lib\webservices.jar.
2. Use the Java2Schema tool in the Systinet Server for Java product.
Here's the contents of a sample build.xml that uses the java2xsd class:
<project
name="java2xsd"
default="assemble"
basedir="."
>
     <path id="compile.classpath">
          <fileset dir="d:/bea81sp4/">
               <include name="lib/tools.jar" />
          </fileset>
          <fileset dir="d:/bea81sp4/weblogic81">
               <include name="server/lib/weblogic.jar"/>
               <include name="server/lib/webservices.jar"/>
          </fileset>
     </path>
     <target name="clean">
          <delete dir="xsd" />
     </target>
     <target name="run-java2xsd">
<delete dir="xsd" />
<mkdir dir="xsd"/>
<java
     classname="weblogic.xml.schema.binding.util.java2xsd"
fork="true"
>
<jvmarg line="-Djava.io.tmpdir=xsd"/>
<arg line="
com.acme.world.schema.x2005.x11.elending.Loan
com.acme.world.schema.x2005.x11.elending.Applicant
com.acme.world.schema.x2005.x11.ebillpay.Account
"/>
<classpath>
<path refid="compile.classpath"/>
<pathelement location="classes"/>
</classpath>
</java>
     </target>
     <target name="assemble" depends="run-java2xsd">
     </target>
</project>
Here, you would replace the paths in the <path> element of course, but you would also need to come up with a way to provide a list of the JavaBean classes to process. The good thing is that java2xsd is smart enough to put all the classes in a given Java package, in the same <xs:schema> element :-) For instance, in:
<arg line="
com.acme.world.schema.x2005.x11.elending.Loan
com.acme.world.schema.x2005.x11.elending.Applicant
com.acme.world.schema.x2005.x11.ebillpay.Account
"/>
the complexType element for "Loan" and "Applicant", will be defined in the same <xs:schema>. There will only be one schemas.xsd file. I don't know of an easy way to change the file name, but it will contain a <xs:schema> for each unique Java package name. Once you have this schemas.xsd file, you can decide how you want to create the XMLBeans from it. You can either break each <xs:schema> element out into it's own .xsd file, or create a WSDL that uses the contents of the schemas.xsd file. You'll notice that there is a <type> element wrapping all the <xs:schema> elements in the schemas.xsd file, which is exactly the name of the element that WSDL uses :-)
Again, java2xsd is not a "supported" class, so don't confuse it (or the information provided above) with being "the tool that BEA provides" for doing what you want to do :-)
Regards,
Mike Wooten