Today we will look into jaxb2-maven-plugin XJC example to generate java classes from XSD. JAXB is the middleware technology between Java Classes and XML. We can use JAXB to generate XML from Java Object and vice versa.
We use XSD to define the contract data structure, so it’s not common to generate java classes that represent the XML schema. jaxb2-maven-plugin XJC is JAXB Binding compiler tool that can be used to generate Java Classes from XSD files. Here we will learn how to use jaxb2-maven-plugin XJC in a maven project to generate java classes from XSD. First of all we have to create a maven project, then we need to use jaxb2-maven-plugin
plugin to generate java classes from XSD. pom.xml
<project xmlns="https://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="https://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
<modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
<groupId>jd</groupId>
<artifactId>jd</artifactId>
<version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
<name>JD Example XSD to Java</name>
<properties>
<project.build.sourceEncoding>UTF-8</project.build.sourceEncoding>
</properties>
<build>
<plugins>
<!-- Plugin required to build java classes from XSD using XJC -->
<plugin>
<groupId>org.codehaus.mojo</groupId>
<artifactId>jaxb2-maven-plugin</artifactId>
<version>1.5</version>
<executions>
<execution>
<goals>
<goal>xjc</goal>
</goals>
</execution>
</executions>
<configuration>
<!-- The name of your generated source package -->
<arguments>-extension -npa -b ${project.basedir}/src/main/xsd/global.xjb</arguments>
</configuration>
</plugin>
</plugins>
</build>
</project>
Notice the global.xjb
file in arguments, this is where we specify java binding rules. global.xjb
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<jaxb:bindings version="2.0"
xmlns:jaxb="https://java.sun.com/xml/ns/jaxb"
xmlns:xjc="https://java.sun.com/xml/ns/jaxb/xjc"
xmlns:xs="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
jaxb:extensionBindingPrefixes="xjc">
<jaxb:globalBindings>
<xjc:simple />
<xjc:serializable uid="-1" />
<jaxb:javaType name="java.util.Calendar" xmlType="xs:dateTime"
parseMethod="javax.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter.parseDateTime"
printMethod="javax.xml.bind.DatatypeConverter.printDateTime" />
</jaxb:globalBindings>
</jaxb:bindings>
Here is the XSD that will be used to generate java classes. Employee.xsd
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<schema xmlns="https://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
targetNamespace="https://www.journaldev.com/com/journaldev/employee/data"
xmlns:empns="https://www.journaldev.com/com/journaldev/employee/data"
elementFormDefault="qualified">
<element name="empRequest" type="empns:EmpRequest"></element>
<element name="empResponse" type="empns:EmpResponse"></element>
<complexType name="EmpRequest">
<sequence>
<element name="id" type="int" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />
<element name="name" type="string" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1" />
</sequence>
</complexType>
<complexType name="EmpResponse">
<sequence>
<element name="id" type="int" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" />
<element name="name" type="string" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" />
<element name="role" type="string" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="unbounded" />
<element name="gender" type="string" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" />
<element name="salary" type="string" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1" />
</sequence>
</complexType>
</schema>
Just build the maven project using mvn clean install
and you will see java classes generated in target/generated-sources/jaxb
directory. Finally the project would look something like below image. Further Read: JAXB Tutorial Reference: jaxb2 maven plugin official page, java xjc
Thanks for learning with the DigitalOcean Community. Check out our offerings for compute, storage, networking, and managed databases.
While we believe that this content benefits our community, we have not yet thoroughly reviewed it. If you have any suggestions for improvements, please let us know by clicking the “report an issue“ button at the bottom of the tutorial.
Sign up for Infrastructure as a Newsletter.
Working on improving health and education, reducing inequality, and spurring economic growth? We'd like to help.
Get paid to write technical tutorials and select a tech-focused charity to receive a matching donation.
Just FYI the schema namespaces are NOT https:// … etc, they must be http://
- RM
Proper config for JAXB2 for version below 2.0 is : ${project.basedir}/src/main/xsd/ Employee.xsd
- Azizasm
How to add rootelement into java class using XJB
- Mageswran
How to add Root element into Java class using XJB using Maven
- Mageswran
Hi Pankaj, I have one question, what is purpose of -extention and -npa? where you have use this? -extension -npa -b ${project.basedir}/src/main/xsd/global.xjb Thanks
- Jalaram
You forgot to tell mvn where Employee.xsd is. You need a in your element.
- DeanS
change the goal from xjc to generate if you getting Errors when trying to install with maven.
- A S
Thanks Pankaj ! :)
- Bhawani Singh Shekhawat
Thanks Pankaj. I was looking for an example of the xjc maven plugin usage and yours was exactly what I needed.
- Ricardo