JAXB unmarshal Boolean values without using annotations - jaxb

Question

I don't want to use annotations on my class to marshal/unmarshal from XML. i know jaxb does not need annotations to unmarshal xml into an object as long as the property names and the structure match. it works with numbers and strings but it does not seem to work with Booleans. these always end up as nulls, and when marshalling, Boolean properties do not show up in the resulting XML.how can i make it work without using annotations?

Answer 1

You will at least need the #XmlRootElement annotation on your root class.
The preferred naming convention for a boolean getter is isSomething() instead of getSomething().
The following Java class
#XmlRootElement
public class Root {
private Boolean something;
public Boolean isSomething() {
return something;
}
public void setSomething(Boolean something) {
this.something = something;
}
}
works fine for me with this XML input:
<root>
<something>true</something>
</root>
I have tested with this main method:
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
JAXBContext context = JAXBContext.newInstance(Root.class);
Unmarshaller unmarshaller = context.createUnmarshaller();
File file = new File("root.xml");
Root root = (Root) unmarshaller.unmarshal(file);
Marshaller marshaller = context.createMarshaller();
marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
marshaller.marshal(root, System.out);
}
The generated XML output is:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<root>
<something>true</something>
</root>