JAXB XJC code generation issue with xs: list date and dateTime type.

Question

I am using an xsd having two <xs:list/> elements.

<xs:element name="packorder1" type="DateTimeTypeXsList"/>
<xs:element name="packorder2" type="DateTypeXsList"/>
<xs:simpleType name="DateTimeTypeXsList">
    <xs:list itemType="xs:dateTime"/>
</xs:simpleType>
<xs:simpleType name="DateTypeXsList">
    <xs:list itemType="xs:date"/>
</xs:simpleType>

For these elements the JAXB generated code is :

@XmlList
@XmlElement(required = true)
protected List<XMLGregorianCalendar> packorder1;

@XmlList
@XmlElement(required = true)
protected List<XMLGregorianCalendar> packorder2;

The generated code does not contain any information about which one of these element is of date type and which one is of type dateTime.Now if i try to create an xml using jaxbcontext of this class it will create a dateTime element for both packorder1 and packorder2 which it should not do. So how can i distinguish between these two elements?

Answer 1

I'm not sure if I'm misunderstanding you, but XJC should generate fields of type XmlGregorianCalendar for both dateTime and date schema types. It is up to you to know which is which; it's no different to xs:string and xs:NMTOKEN both mapping to java.lang.String.

Answer 2

You can add an @XmlSchemaType annotation to your model to control the output

        @XmlList 
        @XmlElement(required = true) 
        @XmlSchemaType(name="dateTime")
        protected List<XMLGregorianCalendar> packorder1; 

        @XmlList 
        @XmlElement(required = true) 
        @XmlSchemaType(name="date")
        protected List<XMLGregorianCalendar> packorder2;

Also, XMLGregorianCalendar knows what XML schema type corresponds to the data its holding, see the getXMLSchemaType method on XMLGregorianCalendar:

http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/javax/xml/datatype/XMLGregorianCalendar.html#getXMLSchemaType()

JAXB will then use that schema type to marshal the document:

import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessorType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlList;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
import javax.xml.datatype.XMLGregorianCalendar;

    @XmlRootElement
    @XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
    public class Root {

        public Root() {
            packorder1 = new ArrayList<XMLGregorianCalendar>();
            packorder2 = new ArrayList<XMLGregorianCalendar>();
        }


        @XmlList 
        @XmlElement(required = true) 
        protected List<XMLGregorianCalendar> packorder1; 

        @XmlList 
        @XmlElement(required = true) 
        protected List<XMLGregorianCalendar> packorder2;

        public List<XMLGregorianCalendar> getPackorder1() {
            return packorder1;
        }

        public void setPackorder1(List<XMLGregorianCalendar> packorder1) {
            this.packorder1 = packorder1;
        }

        public List<XMLGregorianCalendar> getPackorder2() {
            return packorder2;
        }

        public void setPackorder2(List<XMLGregorianCalendar> packorder2) {
            this.packorder2 = packorder2;
        } 

    }

and

import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import javax.xml.bind.Marshaller;
import javax.xml.datatype.DatatypeFactory;
import javax.xml.datatype.XMLGregorianCalendar;

public class Demo {

    public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
        JAXBContext jc = JAXBContext.newInstance(Root.class);

        Root root = new Root();
        DatatypeFactory df = DatatypeFactory.newInstance();

        XMLGregorianCalendar dateTime1 = df.newXMLGregorianCalendar("2010-07-27T12:34:56");
        root.getPackorder1().add(dateTime1);

        XMLGregorianCalendar dateTime2 = df.newXMLGregorianCalendar("2010-03-17T01:02:03");
        root.getPackorder1().add(dateTime2);

        XMLGregorianCalendar date1 = df.newXMLGregorianCalendar("2010-07-27");
        root.getPackorder2().add(date1);

        XMLGregorianCalendar date2 = df.newXMLGregorianCalendar("2010-03-17");
        root.getPackorder2().add(date2);

        Marshaller marshaller = jc.createMarshaller();
        marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
        marshaller.marshal(root, System.out);
    }

}

will produce:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<root>
    <packorder1>2010-07-27T12:34:56 2010-03-17T01:02:03</packorder1>
    <packorder2>2010-07-27 2010-03-17</packorder2>
</root>