java - JAXB Marshalling Unmarshalling with CDATA

Question

I am trying to do marshaling with JAXB.

My output is like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<root>
    <name>&lt;![CDATA[&lt;h1&gt;kshitij&lt;/h1&gt;]]&gt;</name>
    <surname>&lt;h1&gt;solanki&lt;/h1&gt;</surname>
    <id>&lt;h1&gt;1&lt;/h1&gt;</id>
</root>

...but I need output like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
    <root>
        <name><![CDATA[<h1>kshitij</h1>]]></name>
        <surname><![CDATA[<h1>solanki</h1>]]></surname>
        <id><![CDATA[0]]></id>
    </root>

I am using following code to do this.

If I uncomment code I get PropertyBindingException. Without it I can compile but I am not getting the exact required output.

  package com.ksh.templates;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.StringWriter;
import java.io.Writer;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import javax.xml.bind.Marshaller;
import com.sun.xml.bind.marshaller.CharacterEscapeHandler;

public class MainCDATA {
    public static void main(String args[])
    {
        try
        {
            String name = "<h1>kshitij</h1>";
            String surname = "<h1>solanki</h1>";
            String id = "<h1>1</h1>";
            
            TestingCDATA cdata = new TestingCDATA();
            cdata.setId(id);
            cdata.setName(name);
            cdata.setSurname(surname);
            
            JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(TestingCDATA.class);
            Marshaller marshaller = jaxbContext.createMarshaller();
            marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
            
            marshaller.setProperty(CharacterEscapeHandler.class.getName(), new CharacterEscapeHandler() { 
                public void escape(char[] ac, int i, int j, boolean flag,
                Writer writer) throws IOException {
                writer.write( ac, i, j ); }
                });
            StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter(); 
            marshaller.marshal(cdata, stringWriter);
            System.out.println(stringWriter.toString());
        } catch (Exception e) {
            System.out.println(e);
        }       
    }
}

My bean looks like this:

package com.ksh.templates;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessorType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlJavaTypeAdapter;
import com.sun.xml.txw2.annotation.XmlCDATA;

@XmlRootElement(name = "root")
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class TestingCDATA {

    @XmlElement
    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(value = AdaptorCDATA.class)
    private String name;
    @XmlElement
    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(value = AdaptorCDATA.class)
    private String surname;
    
    @XmlCDATA
    public String getName() {
        return name;
    }
    @XmlCDATA
    public void setName(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }
    @XmlCDATA
    public String getSurname() {
        return surname;
    }
    @XmlCDATA
    public void setSurname(String surname) {
        this.surname = surname;
    }
}

Adaptor Class

public class AdaptorCDATA extends XmlAdapter<String, String> {

    @Override
    public String marshal(String arg0) throws Exception {
        return "<![CDATA[" + arg0 + "]]>";
    }
    @Override
    public String unmarshal(String arg0) throws Exception {
        return arg0;
    }
}

Answer 1

You could do the following:

AdapterCDATA

package forum14193944;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlAdapter;

public class AdapterCDATA extends XmlAdapter<String, String> {

    @Override
    public String marshal(String arg0) throws Exception {
        return "<![CDATA[" + arg0 + "]]>";
    }
    @Override
    public String unmarshal(String arg0) throws Exception {
        return arg0;
    }

}

Root

The @XmlJavaTypeAdapter annotation is used to specify that the XmlAdapter should be used.

package forum14193944;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.XmlJavaTypeAdapter;

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

    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(AdapterCDATA.class)
    private String name;

    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(AdapterCDATA.class)
    private String surname;

    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(AdapterCDATA.class)
    private String id;

}

Demo

I had to wrap System.out in an OutputStreamWriter to get the desired effect. Also note that setting a CharacterEscapeHandler means that it is responsible for all escape handling for that Marshaller.

package forum14193944;

import java.io.*;
import javax.xml.bind.*;
import com.sun.xml.bind.marshaller.*;

public class Demo {

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

        Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jc.createUnmarshaller();
        File xml = new File("src/forum14193944/input.xml");
        Root root = (Root) unmarshaller.unmarshal(xml);

        Marshaller marshaller = jc.createMarshaller();
        marshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, true);
        marshaller.setProperty(CharacterEscapeHandler.class.getName(),
                new CharacterEscapeHandler() {
                    @Override
                    public void escape(char[] ac, int i, int j, boolean flag,
                            Writer writer) throws IOException {
                        writer.write(ac, i, j);
                    }
                });
        marshaller.marshal(root, new OutputStreamWriter(System.out));
    }

}

input.xml/Output

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<root>
    <name><![CDATA[<h1>kshitij</h1>]]></name>
    <surname><![CDATA[<h1>solanki</h1>]]></surname>
    <id><![CDATA[0]]></id>
</root>