How to use generic object List in JAXB XmlAdapter

Question

I have two similar classes, that simply have a string name. I wanted to add an XML adapter to the Lists so that I could get a CSV string from each of them.

I tried to declare my adapter like so:

 public class ListXmlAdapter extends XmlAdapter<String, ArrayList<Object>> {

But when I try to use this I get illegal annotation exceptions saying ListXmlAdapter is not applicable for whatever type I try to pass in at the annotation - such as Test below

@XmlElement
@XmlJavaTypeAdapter(ListXmlAdapter.class)
List<Test> tests = new ArrayList<Test>()

How would I create this adapter that I want to use for a few different ArrayLists of different object types I have?

Answer 1

If you change the property type to ArrayList it will work:

@XmlElement
@XmlJavaTypeAdapter(ListXmlAdapter.class)
ArrayList<Test> tests = new ArrayList<Test>();