XMLParser and JAXB

Question

What are the differences/advatanges of using the XMLParser in the javabeans package as opposed to using JAXB to create your own javabean object. It seems like it would be much easier to just create the javabean yourself and then when you need to save it to xml, you just send it to XMLParser. No need to recreate classes after you change attributes of your data object, no complicated marshalling procedures. Just give the XMLParser object the JavaBean object and your finished. What are the benefits of using JAXB?

Answer 1

I don't see an XMLParser class in the java.beans package so I'll assume you are referring to the XMLEncoder and XMLDecoder classes.
From what I can tell, you need to define a concrete class definition for your bean. This automatically creates an XML file format.
JAXB on the other hand takes an XML defnintion and creates java source matching the schema.
Lets say you need to interface with company X. They don't use Java. They give you an XML file format that they support. Even if you can define Java beans to match their format, you have no flexibility as to how you can define your classes.
JAXB on the other hand, allows you to take their schema, and translate it into Java classes. You can also customize the binding to match an existing code base.
The other main advantage is that it is much harder to write java classes than to write a schema. Once you throw in validation, generating code from a schema starts looking very good.