Understanding Java Architecture for XML Binding

JAXB (Java Architecture for XML Binding – JSR 222) is the standard for XML Binding in Java. JAXB covers 100% of XML Schema concepts and EclipseLink provides a JAXB implementation with many extensions. See http://jcp.org/en/jsr/detail?id=222 for complete information on the JAXB specification.

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.

Related tasks

• Creating a new JAXB project

Related reference

• JSR 222: Java Architecture for XML Binding (JAXB) 2.0