Solving Object-XML Impedance Mismatch

Although XML is a common format for the exchange of data, for many applications objects are the preferred programmatic representation – not XML. In order to work at the object-level, the XML data needs to be converted to object form. The mismatch between XML and objects is known as object-xml impedance mismatch.

JAXB allows you to interact with XML data by using domain-like objects. Unlike DOM objects, the JAXB content model provides insight into the XML document based on the XML schema. For example, if the XML schema defines XML documents that contain customer information, your content model will contain objects such as Customer, Address, and PhoneNumber. Each type in the XML schema will have a corresponding Java class.

With EclipseLink MOXy, you can efficiently bind Java classes to XML schemas or JSON documents. MOXy implements JAXB by allowing you to provide mapping information through annotations as well as storing the mappings in XML or JSON. By using the EclipseLink's advanced mappings, you can manage complex XML structures without having to mirror the schema in your Java class model.