The Java – JAXB XML adapter works through annotations, but not through setadapter

I know all about how to use xmladapters to convert unmappable types, or just change how some objects are serialized / deserialized into XML If I use annotations (package level or otherwise), everything will be fine The problem is that I'm trying to change the representation of third-party objects. I can't change the source code to (that is, to inject comments)

This should not be a problem, considering that the Marshall object has a method manually adding adapters Unfortunately, no matter what I do, I can't get set to "kick" in this way For example, I have a class that represents a point (geocentric coordinates) in XYZ space In the XML I produce, I want to convert it to lat / long / altitude (geodetic coordinates) This is my course:

Geocentric

package testJaxb;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAttribute;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement
public class GeocentricCoordinate {
    // Units are in meters; see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_coordinates
    private double x;
    private double y;
    private double z;

    @XmlAttribute
    public double getX() {
        return x;
    }
    public void setX(double x) {
        this.x = x;
    }
    @XmlAttribute
    public double getY() {
        return y;
    }
    public void setY(double y) {
        this.y = y;
    }
    @XmlAttribute
    public double getZ() {
        return z;
    }
    public void setZ(double z) {
        this.z = z;
    }
}

earth

package testJaxb;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAttribute;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
/**
 * @see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geodetic_system
 */
@XmlRootElement
public class GeodeticCoordinate {

    private double latitude;
    private double longitude;
    // Meters
    private double altitude;

    public GeodeticCoordinate() {
        this(0,0);
    }

    public GeodeticCoordinate(double latitude,double longitude,double altitude) {
        super();
        this.latitude = latitude;
        this.longitude = longitude;
        this.altitude = altitude;
    }

    @XmlAttribute
    public double getLatitude() {
        return latitude;
    }
    public void setLatitude(double latitude) {
        this.latitude = latitude;
    }

    @XmlAttribute
    public double getLongitude() {
        return longitude;
    }

    public void setLongitude(double longitude) {
        this.longitude = longitude;
    }

    @XmlAttribute
    public double getAltitude() {
        return altitude;
    }
    public void setAltitude(double altitude) {
        this.altitude = altitude;
    }



}

GeocentricToGeodeticLocationAdapter

package testJaxb;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBException;
import javax.xml.bind.Marshaller;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlAdapter;


/**
 * One of our systems uses xyz coordinates to represent locations. Consumers of our XML would much
 * prefer lat/lon/altitude.  This handles converting between xyz and lat lon alt.  
 * 
 * @author ndunn
 *
 */
public class GeocentricToGeodeticLocationAdapter extends XmlAdapter<GeodeticCoordinate,GeocentricCoordinate> {

    @Override
    public GeodeticCoordinate marshal(GeocentricCoordinate arg0) throws Exception {
        // TODO: do a real coordinate transformation
        GeodeticCoordinate coordinate = new GeodeticCoordinate();
        coordinate.setLatitude(45);
        coordinate.setLongitude(45);
        coordinate.setAltitude(1000);
        return coordinate;
    }

    @Override
    public GeocentricCoordinate unmarshal(GeodeticCoordinate arg0) throws Exception {
        // TODO do a real coordinate transformation
        GeocentricCoordinate gcc = new GeocentricCoordinate();
        gcc.setX(100);
        gcc.setY(200);
        gcc.setZ(300);
        return gcc;
    }
}

Objectwithlocation field

package testJaxb; 
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBException;
import javax.xml.bind.Marshaller;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement
public class ObjectWithLocation {

    private GeocentricCoordinate location = new GeocentricCoordinate();

    public GeocentricCoordinate getLocation() {
        return location;
    }

    public void setLocation(GeocentricCoordinate location) {
        this.location = location;
    }


    public static void main(String[] args) {

        ObjectWithLocation object = new ObjectWithLocation();

        try {
            JAXBContext context = JAXBContext.newInstance(ObjectWithLocation.class,GeodeticCoordinate.class,GeocentricCoordinate.class);
            Marshaller marshaller = context.createMarshaller();

            marshaller.setAdapter(new GeocentricToGeodeticLocationAdapter());
            marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT,true);

            marshaller.marshal(object,System.out);

        }
        catch (JAXBException jaxb) {
            jaxb.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Output:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<objectWithLocation>
    <location z="0.0" y="0.0" x="0.0"/>
</objectWithLocation>

By using comments (in my package info.java file):

@javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlJavaTypeAdapters
({
@javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlJavaTypeAdapter(value=GeocentricToGeodeticLocationAdapter.class,type=GeocentricCoordinate.class),})

package package testJaxb;

I get the following (required) XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<objectWithLocation>
    <location longitude="45.0" latitude="45.0" altitude="1000.0"/>
</objectWithLocation>

So my question is twofold

>Why does the adapter work when commenting, but not when explicitly set through the setadapter method? > If I have a class that cannot be annotated, and my package info Java I can't modify to add comments. How can I solve this problem?

Solution

Setadapter (xmladapter) on Marshall is used to pass the initialization xmladapter of the property that has been annotated with @ xmljavatypeadapter The following link is an answer to my use of this behavior:

> Using JAXB to cross reference XmlIDs from two XML files

If you want to map third-party classes, you can use the XML Mapping file of eclipse link JAXB (Moxy) (I am the director of Moxy):

> http://bdoughan.blogspot.com/2010/12/extending-jaxb-representing-annotations.html