[[oxm]]
= Marshalling XML by Using Object-XML Mappers



[[oxm-introduction]]
== Introduction

This chapter, describes Spring's Object-XML Mapping support. Object-XML
Mapping (O-X mapping for short) is the act of converting an XML document to and from
an object. This conversion process is also known as XML Marshalling, or XML
Serialization. This chapter uses these terms interchangeably.

Within the field of O-X mapping, a marshaller is responsible for serializing an
object (graph) to XML. In similar fashion, an unmarshaller deserializes the XML to
an object graph. This XML can take the form of a DOM document, an input or output
stream, or a SAX handler.

Some of the benefits of using Spring for your O/X mapping needs are:

* xref:data-access/oxm.adoc#oxm-ease-of-configuration[Ease of configuration]
* xref:data-access/oxm.adoc#oxm-consistent-interfaces[Consistent Interfaces]
* xref:data-access/oxm.adoc#oxm-consistent-exception-hierarchy[Consistent Exception Hierarchy]


[[oxm-ease-of-configuration]]
=== Ease of configuration

Spring's bean factory makes it easy to configure marshallers, without needing to
construct JAXB context, JiBX binding factories, and so on. You can configure the marshallers
as you would any other bean in your application context. Additionally, XML namespace-based
configuration is available for a number of marshallers, making the configuration even
simpler.


[[oxm-consistent-interfaces]]
=== Consistent Interfaces

Spring's O-X mapping operates through two global interfaces: {spring-framework-api}/oxm/Marshaller.html[`Marshaller`] and
{spring-framework-api}/oxm/Unmarshaller.html[`Unmarshaller`]. These abstractions let you switch O-X mapping frameworks
with relative ease, with little or no change required on the classes that do the
marshalling. This approach has the additional benefit of making it possible to do XML
marshalling with a mix-and-match approach (for example, some marshalling performed using JAXB
and some by XStream) in a non-intrusive fashion, letting you use the strength of each
technology.


[[oxm-consistent-exception-hierarchy]]
=== Consistent Exception Hierarchy

Spring provides a conversion from exceptions from the underlying O-X mapping tool to its
own exception hierarchy with the `XmlMappingException` as the root exception.
These runtime exceptions wrap the original exception so that no information is lost.



[[oxm-marshaller-unmarshaller]]
== `Marshaller` and `Unmarshaller`

As stated in the xref:data-access/oxm.adoc#oxm-introduction[introduction], a marshaller serializes an object
to XML, and an unmarshaller deserializes XML stream to an object. This section describes
the two Spring interfaces used for this purpose.


[[oxm-marshaller]]
=== Understanding `Marshaller`

Spring abstracts all marshalling operations behind the
`org.springframework.oxm.Marshaller` interface, the main method of which follows:

[source,java,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	public interface Marshaller {

		/**
		 * Marshal the object graph with the given root into the provided Result.
		 */
		void marshal(Object graph, Result result) throws XmlMappingException, IOException;
	}
----

The `Marshaller` interface has one main method, which marshals the given object to a
given `javax.xml.transform.Result`. The result is a tagging interface that basically
represents an XML output abstraction. Concrete implementations wrap various XML
representations, as the following table indicates:

[[oxm-marshaller-tbl]]
|===
| Result implementation| Wraps XML representation

| `DOMResult`
| `org.w3c.dom.Node`

| `SAXResult`
| `org.xml.sax.ContentHandler`

| `StreamResult`
| `java.io.File`, `java.io.OutputStream`, or `java.io.Writer`
|===

NOTE: Although the `marshal()` method accepts a plain object as its first parameter, most
`Marshaller` implementations cannot handle arbitrary objects. Instead, an object class
must be mapped in a mapping file, be marked with an annotation, be registered with the
marshaller, or have a common base class. Refer to the later sections in this chapter
to determine how your O-X technology manages this.


[[oxm-unmarshaller]]
=== Understanding `Unmarshaller`

Similar to the `Marshaller`, we have the `org.springframework.oxm.Unmarshaller`
interface, which the following listing shows:

[source,java,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	public interface Unmarshaller {

		/**
		 * Unmarshal the given provided Source into an object graph.
		 */
		Object unmarshal(Source source) throws XmlMappingException, IOException;
	}
----

This interface also has one method, which reads from the given
`javax.xml.transform.Source` (an XML input abstraction) and returns the object read. As
with `Result`, `Source` is a tagging interface that has three concrete implementations. Each
wraps a different XML representation, as the following table indicates:

[[oxm-unmarshaller-tbl]]
|===
| Source implementation| Wraps XML representation

| `DOMSource`
| `org.w3c.dom.Node`

| `SAXSource`
| `org.xml.sax.InputSource`, and `org.xml.sax.XMLReader`

| `StreamSource`
| `java.io.File`, `java.io.InputStream`, or `java.io.Reader`
|===

Even though there are two separate marshalling interfaces (`Marshaller` and
`Unmarshaller`), all implementations in Spring-WS implement both in one class.
This means that you can wire up one marshaller class and refer to it both as a
marshaller and as an unmarshaller in your `applicationContext.xml`.


[[oxm-xmlmappingexception]]
=== Understanding `XmlMappingException`

Spring converts exceptions from the underlying O-X mapping tool to its own exception
hierarchy with the `XmlMappingException` as the root exception.
These runtime exceptions wrap the original exception so that no information will be lost.

Additionally, the `MarshallingFailureException` and `UnmarshallingFailureException`
provide a distinction between marshalling and unmarshalling operations, even though the
underlying O-X mapping tool does not do so.

The O-X Mapping exception hierarchy is shown in the following figure:

image::oxm-exceptions.png[]



[[oxm-usage]]
== Using `Marshaller` and `Unmarshaller`

You can use Spring's OXM for a wide variety of situations. In the following example, we
use it to marshal the settings of a Spring-managed application as an XML file. In the following example, we
use a simple JavaBean to represent the settings:

[tabs]
======
Java::
+
[source,java,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	public class Settings {

		private boolean fooEnabled;

		public boolean isFooEnabled() {
			return fooEnabled;
		}

		public void setFooEnabled(boolean fooEnabled) {
			this.fooEnabled = fooEnabled;
		}
	}
----

Kotlin::
+
[source,kotlin,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	class Settings {
		var isFooEnabled: Boolean = false
	}
----
======

The application class uses this bean to store its settings. Besides a main method, the
class has two methods: `saveSettings()` saves the settings bean to a file named
`settings.xml`, and `loadSettings()` loads these settings again. The following `main()` method
constructs a Spring application context and calls these two methods:

[tabs]
======
Java::
+
[source,java,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	import java.io.FileInputStream;
	import java.io.FileOutputStream;
	import java.io.IOException;
	import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;
	import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamSource;
	import org.springframework.context.ApplicationContext;
	import org.springframework.context.support.ClassPathXmlApplicationContext;
	import org.springframework.oxm.Marshaller;
	import org.springframework.oxm.Unmarshaller;

	public class Application {

		private static final String FILE_NAME = "settings.xml";
		private Settings settings = new Settings();
		private Marshaller marshaller;
		private Unmarshaller unmarshaller;

		public void setMarshaller(Marshaller marshaller) {
			this.marshaller = marshaller;
		}

		public void setUnmarshaller(Unmarshaller unmarshaller) {
			this.unmarshaller = unmarshaller;
		}

		public void saveSettings() throws IOException {
			try (FileOutputStream os = new FileOutputStream(FILE_NAME)) {
				this.marshaller.marshal(settings, new StreamResult(os));
			}
		}

		public void loadSettings() throws IOException {
			try (FileInputStream is = new FileInputStream(FILE_NAME)) {
				this.settings = (Settings) this.unmarshaller.unmarshal(new StreamSource(is));
			}
		}

		public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
			ApplicationContext appContext =
					new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("applicationContext.xml");
			Application application = (Application) appContext.getBean("application");
			application.saveSettings();
			application.loadSettings();
		}
	}
----

Kotlin::
+
[source,kotlin,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	class Application {

		lateinit var marshaller: Marshaller

		lateinit var unmarshaller: Unmarshaller

		fun saveSettings() {
			FileOutputStream(FILE_NAME).use { outputStream -> marshaller.marshal(settings, StreamResult(outputStream)) }
		}

		fun loadSettings() {
			FileInputStream(FILE_NAME).use { inputStream -> settings = unmarshaller.unmarshal(StreamSource(inputStream)) as Settings }
		}
	}

	private const val FILE_NAME = "settings.xml"

	fun main(args: Array<String>) {
		val appContext = ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("applicationContext.xml")
		val application = appContext.getBean("application") as Application
		application.saveSettings()
		application.loadSettings()
	}
----
======

The `Application` requires both a `marshaller` and an `unmarshaller` property to be set. We
can do so by using the following `applicationContext.xml`:

[source,xml,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<beans>
		<bean id="application" class="Application">
			<property name="marshaller" ref="xstreamMarshaller" />
			<property name="unmarshaller" ref="xstreamMarshaller" />
		</bean>
		<bean id="xstreamMarshaller" class="org.springframework.oxm.xstream.XStreamMarshaller"/>
	</beans>
----

This application context uses XStream, but we could have used any of the other marshaller
instances described later in this chapter. Note that, by default, XStream does not require
any further configuration, so the bean definition is rather simple. Also note that the
`XStreamMarshaller` implements both `Marshaller` and `Unmarshaller`, so we can refer to the
`xstreamMarshaller` bean in both the `marshaller` and `unmarshaller` property of the
application.

This sample application produces the following `settings.xml` file:

[source,xml,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
	<settings foo-enabled="false"/>
----



[[oxm-schema-based-config]]
== XML Configuration Namespace

You can configure marshallers more concisely by using tags from the OXM namespace.
To make these tags available, you must first reference the appropriate schema in the
preamble of the XML configuration file. The following example shows how to do so:

[source,xml,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
	<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
		xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
		xmlns:oxm="http://www.springframework.org/schema/oxm" <1>
		xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
			https://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd
			http://www.springframework.org/schema/oxm
			https://www.springframework.org/schema/oxm/spring-oxm.xsd"> <2>
----
<1> Reference the `oxm` schema.
<2> Specify the `oxm` schema location.


The schema makes the following elements available:

* xref:data-access/oxm.adoc#oxm-jaxb2-xsd[`jaxb2-marshaller`]
* xref:data-access/oxm.adoc#oxm-jibx-xsd[`jibx-marshaller`]

Each tag is explained in its respective marshaller's section. As an example, though,
the configuration of a JAXB2 marshaller might resemble the following:

[source,xml,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<oxm:jaxb2-marshaller id="marshaller" contextPath="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.schema"/>
----



[[oxm-jaxb]]
== JAXB

The JAXB binding compiler translates a W3C XML Schema into one or more Java classes, a
`jaxb.properties` file, and possibly some resource files. JAXB also offers a way to
generate a schema from annotated Java classes.

Spring supports the JAXB 2.0 API as XML marshalling strategies, following the
`Marshaller` and `Unmarshaller` interfaces described in xref:data-access/oxm.adoc#oxm-marshaller-unmarshaller[`Marshaller` and `Unmarshaller`].
The corresponding integration classes reside in the `org.springframework.oxm.jaxb`
package.


[[oxm-jaxb2]]
=== Using `Jaxb2Marshaller`

The `Jaxb2Marshaller` class implements both of Spring's `Marshaller` and `Unmarshaller`
interfaces. It requires a context path to operate. You can set the context path by setting the
`contextPath` property. The context path is a list of colon-separated Java package
names that contain schema derived classes. It also offers a `classesToBeBound` property,
which allows you to set an array of classes to be supported by the marshaller. Schema
validation is performed by specifying one or more schema resources to the bean, as the following example shows:

[source,xml,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<beans>
		<bean id="jaxb2Marshaller" class="org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Jaxb2Marshaller">
			<property name="classesToBeBound">
				<list>
					<value>org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Flight</value>
					<value>org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Flights</value>
				</list>
			</property>
			<property name="schema" value="classpath:org/springframework/oxm/schema.xsd"/>
		</bean>

		...

	</beans>
----

[[oxm-jaxb2-xsd]]
==== XML Configuration Namespace

The `jaxb2-marshaller` element configures a `org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Jaxb2Marshaller`,
as the following example shows:

[source,xml,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<oxm:jaxb2-marshaller id="marshaller" contextPath="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.schema"/>
----

Alternatively, you can provide the list of classes to bind to the marshaller by using the
`class-to-be-bound` child element:

[source,xml,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<oxm:jaxb2-marshaller id="marshaller">
		<oxm:class-to-be-bound name="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.schema.Airport"/>
		<oxm:class-to-be-bound name="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.schema.Flight"/>
		...
	</oxm:jaxb2-marshaller>
----

The following table describes the available attributes:

|===
| Attribute| Description| Required

| `id`
| The ID of the marshaller
| No

| `contextPath`
| The JAXB Context path
| No
|===



[[oxm-jibx]]
== JiBX

The JiBX framework offers a solution similar to that which Hibernate provides for ORM: A
binding definition defines the rules for how your Java objects are converted to or from
XML. After preparing the binding and compiling the classes, a JiBX binding compiler
enhances the class files and adds code to handle converting instances of the classes
from or to XML.

For more information on JiBX, see the http://jibx.sourceforge.net/[JiBX web
site]. The Spring integration classes reside in the `org.springframework.oxm.jibx`
package.


[[oxm-jibx-marshaller]]
=== Using `JibxMarshaller`

The `JibxMarshaller` class implements both the `Marshaller` and `Unmarshaller`
interface. To operate, it requires the name of the class to marshal in, which you can
set using the `targetClass` property. Optionally, you can set the binding name by setting the
`bindingName` property. In the following example, we bind the `Flights` class:

[source,xml,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<beans>
		<bean id="jibxFlightsMarshaller" class="org.springframework.oxm.jibx.JibxMarshaller">
			<property name="targetClass">org.springframework.oxm.jibx.Flights</property>
		</bean>
		...
	</beans>
----

A `JibxMarshaller` is configured for a single class. If you want to marshal multiple
classes, you have to configure multiple `JibxMarshaller` instances with different `targetClass`
property values.

[[oxm-jibx-xsd]]
==== XML Configuration Namespace

The `jibx-marshaller` tag configures a `org.springframework.oxm.jibx.JibxMarshaller`,
as the following example shows:

[source,xml,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<oxm:jibx-marshaller id="marshaller" target-class="org.springframework.ws.samples.airline.schema.Flight"/>
----

The following table describes the available attributes:

|===
| Attribute| Description| Required

| `id`
| The ID of the marshaller
| No

| `target-class`
| The target class for this marshaller
| Yes

| `bindingName`
| The binding name used by this marshaller
| No
|===



[[oxm-xstream]]
== XStream

XStream is a simple library to serialize objects to XML and back again. It does not
require any mapping and generates clean XML.

For more information on XStream, see the https://x-stream.github.io/[XStream
web site]. The Spring integration classes reside in the
`org.springframework.oxm.xstream` package.


[[oxm-xstream-marshaller]]
=== Using `XStreamMarshaller`

The `XStreamMarshaller` does not require any configuration and can be configured in an
application context directly. To further customize the XML, you can set an alias map,
which consists of string aliases mapped to classes, as the following example shows:

[source,xml,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<beans>
		<bean id="xstreamMarshaller" class="org.springframework.oxm.xstream.XStreamMarshaller">
			<property name="aliases">
				<props>
					<prop key="Flight">org.springframework.oxm.xstream.Flight</prop>
				</props>
			</property>
		</bean>
		...
	</beans>
----

[WARNING]
=====
By default, XStream lets arbitrary classes be unmarshalled, which can lead to
unsafe Java serialization effects. As such, we do not recommend using the
`XStreamMarshaller` to unmarshal XML from external sources (that is, the Web), as this can
result in security vulnerabilities.

If you choose to use the `XStreamMarshaller` to unmarshal XML from an external source,
set the `supportedClasses` property on the `XStreamMarshaller`, as the following example shows:

[source,xml,indent=0,subs="verbatim,quotes"]
----
	<bean id="xstreamMarshaller" class="org.springframework.oxm.xstream.XStreamMarshaller">
		<property name="supportedClasses" value="org.springframework.oxm.xstream.Flight"/>
		...
	</bean>
----

Doing so ensures that only the registered classes are eligible for unmarshalling.

Additionally, you can register
{spring-framework-api}/oxm/xstream/XStreamMarshaller.html#setConverters(com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.ConverterMatcher...)[custom
converters] to make sure that only your supported classes can be unmarshalled. You might
want to add a `CatchAllConverter` as the last converter in the list, in addition to
converters that explicitly support the domain classes that should be supported. As a
result, default XStream converters with lower priorities and possible security
vulnerabilities do not get invoked.
=====

NOTE: Note that XStream is an XML serialization library, not a data binding library.
Therefore, it has limited namespace support. As a result, it is rather unsuitable for usage
within Web Services.


