javaType Binding Declarations

The <javaType> declaration provides a way to customize the translation of XML data types to and from Java data types. XML provides more data types than Java, and so the <javaType> declaration lets you specify custom data type bindings when the default JAXB binding cannot sufficiently represent your schema.

The target Java data type can be a Java built-in data type or an application-specific Java data type. If an application-specific data type is used as the target, your implementation must also provide parse and print methods for unmarshalling and marshalling data. To this end, the JAXB specification supports a parseMethod and printMethod:

• The parseMethod is called during unmarshalling to convert a string from the input document into a value of the target Java data type.

• The printMethod is called during marshalling to convert a value of the target type into a lexical representation.

If you prefer to define your own data type conversions, JAXB defines a static class, DatatypeConverter, to assist in the parsing and printing of valid lexical representations of the XML Schema built-in data types.

The syntax for the <javaType> customization is:

<javaType name= "javaType"
    [ xmlType= "xmlType" ]
    [ hasNsContext = "true" | "false" ]
    [ parseMethod= "parseMethod" ]
    [ printMethod= "printMethod" ]>

• name is the Java data type to which xmlType is to be bound.

• xmlType is the name of the XML Schema data type to which javaType is to be bound; this attribute is required when the parent of the <javaType> declaration is <globalBindings>.

• hasNsContext allows a namespace context to be specified as a second parameter to a print or a parse method; can be either true, false, 1, or 0. By default, this attribute is false, and in most cases you will not need to change it.

• parseMethod is the name of the parse method to be called during unmarshalling.

• printMethod is the name of the print method to be called during marshalling.

The <javaType> declaration can be used in:

• A <globalBindings> declaration

• An annotation element for simple type definitions, GlobalBindings, and <basetype> declarations

• A <property> declaration

See MyDatatypeConverter Class for an example of how <javaType> declarations and the DatatypeConverterInterface interface are implemented in a custom data type converter class.