Package javax.xml.bind.annotation

Annotation Type XmlElementWrapper

@Retention(RUNTIME)
@Target({FIELD,METHOD})
public @interface XmlElementWrapper

Generates a wrapper element around XML representation. This is primarily intended to be used to produce a wrapper XML element around collections. The annotation therefore supports two forms of serialization shown below.

    //Example: code fragment
      int[] names;

    // XML Serialization Form 1 (Unwrapped collection)
    <names> ... </names>
    <names> ... </names>
 
    // XML Serialization Form 2 ( Wrapped collection )
    <wrapperElement>
       <names> value-of-item </names>
       <names> value-of-item </names>
       ....
    </wrapperElement>
 

The two serialized XML forms allow a null collection to be represented either by absence or presence of an element with a nillable attribute.

Usage

The @XmlElementWrapper annotation can be used with the following program elements:

• JavaBean property
• non static, non transient field

The usage is subject to the following constraints:

• The property must be a collection property
• This annotation can be used with the following annotations: XmlElement, XmlElements, XmlElementRef, XmlElementRefs, XmlJavaTypeAdapter.

See "Package Specification" in javax.xml.bind.package javadoc for additional common information.

See Also:

XmlElement, XmlElements, XmlElementRef, XmlElementRefs

Author:

• Kohsuke Kawaguchi, Sun Microsystems, Inc.
• Sekhar Vajjhala, Sun Microsystems, Inc.

Since:

1.6, JAXB 2.0

Optional Element Summary

Optional Elements

Modifier and Type	Optional Element	Description
java.lang.String	name	Name of the XML wrapper element.
java.lang.String	namespace	XML target namespace of the XML wrapper element.
boolean	nillable	If true, the absence of the collection is represented by using xsi:nil='true'.
boolean	required	Customize the wrapper element declaration to be required.

Element Detail

name

java.lang.String name

Name of the XML wrapper element. By default, the XML wrapper element name is derived from the JavaBean property name.

Default:

"##default"

namespace

java.lang.String namespace

XML target namespace of the XML wrapper element.

If the value is "##default", then the namespace is determined as follows:

1. If the enclosing package has XmlSchema annotation, and its elementFormDefault is QUALIFIED, then the namespace of the enclosing class.
2. Otherwise "" (which produces unqualified element in the default namespace.

Default:

"##default"

nillable

boolean nillable

If true, the absence of the collection is represented by using xsi:nil='true'. Otherwise, it is represented by the absence of the element.

Default:

false

required

boolean required

Customize the wrapper element declaration to be required.

If required() is true, then the corresponding generated XML schema element declaration will have minOccurs="1", to indicate that the wrapper element is always expected.

Note that this only affects the schema generation, and not the unmarshalling or marshalling capability. This is simply a mechanism to let users express their application constraints better.

Since:

1.6, JAXB 2.1

Default:

false