@XmlTransient
When you mark a field/property with @XmlTransient you are explicitly telling your JAXB implementation to treat it as an unmapped property. This is useful when less than half of the fields/properties are unmapped.
package blog.unmapped;
import java.util.List;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class Customer {
@XmlTransient
private int id;
private String firstName;
private String lastName;
private Address billingAddress;
private Address shippingAddress;
private List<PhoneNumber> phoneNumbers;
}
If more than half of the fields/properties are unmapped then we stop gaining the benefit of configuration by exception since we need to do more work to exclude properties with @XmlTransient than we would have had to do to map the mapped properties. Next I’ll demonstrate how we can leverage @XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.NONE) for this use case.
package blog.unmapped;
import java.util.List;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class Customer {
@XmlTransient
private int id;
private String firstName;
private String lastName;
@XmlTransient
private Address billingAddress;
@XmlTransient
private Address shippingAddress;
@XmlTransient
private List<PhoneNumber> phoneNumbers;
}
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.NONE)
By setting @XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.NONE) we are disabling configuration by exception. Now only explicitly mapped properties will be mapped. This is useful when less than half of the fields/properties of a domain object are mapped.
package blog.unmapped;
import java.util.List;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class Customer {
@XmlTransient
private int id;
private String firstName;
private String lastName;
@XmlTransient
private Address billingAddress;
@XmlTransient
private Address shippingAddress;
@XmlTransient
private List<PhoneNumber> phoneNumbers;
}
Further Reading
If you enjoyed this post then you also like:
- Using JAXB’s @XmlAccessorType to Configure Field or Property Access
- Ignoring Inheritance with @XmlTransient
Reference: JAXB and Unmapped Properties from our JCG partner Blaise Doughan at the Java XML & JSON Binding blog.
