Spring can't unmarshall bean when using Spring security

Question

I have a bean which extends from org.springframework.security.core.userdetails.User and using this bean with openID. The bean looks like:

package com.employee;

import java.util.Collection;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

import org.springframework.security.core.GrantedAuthority;
import org.springframework.security.core.userdetails.User;

@XmlRootElement(name="Employee")
public class Employee extends User{

    private int empId;
    private String deptName;

    public Employee() {
        super("", "unused", null);
    }
     public Employee(String username, Collection<GrantedAuthority> authorities) {
           super(username, "unused", authorities);
       }

    public int getEmpId() {
        return empId;
    }
    public void setEmpId(int empId) {
        this.empId = empId;
    }
    public String getDeptName() {
        return deptName;
    }
    public void setDeptName(String deptName) {
        this.deptName = deptName;
    }
}

The controller accepts an instance of Employee as:

@RequestMapping(value = "/addEmp.do", method = RequestMethod.POST) public @ResponseBody String addEmployee(@RequestBody Employee emp) {...}

I have sent a POST request with following body:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Employee>
    <empId>10</empId>
    <deptName>abc</deptName>
</Employee>

But getting the following JAXB exception on invoking the addEmp operation:

2012-12-16 15:25:55,364{HH:mm:ss} DEBUG [http-bio-8080-exec-1] (AbstractHandlerExceptionResolver.java:132) -
Resolving exception from handler [public java.lang.String com.main.EmpController.addEmployee(com .employee.Employee)]: 
org.springframework.http.converter.HttpMessageNotReadableException: Could not unmarshal to 
[class com.employee.Employee]: Unable to create an instance of com.employee.Employee; nested exception is 
javax.xml.bind.UnmarshalException: Unable to create an instance of com.employee.Employee

Are you sure there's nothing more in the logs from JAXB? Have you tried invoking JAXB manually with this input (in some playground project)? — Marcel Stör

coderLMN coderLMN · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-16T16:07:55

The error message:

Unable to create an instance of com.employee

may imply that the input does not provide valid employee properties. In the constructor

public Employee() {
    super("", "unused", null);
}

the default username is set to '', but spring security does not accept blank username.

Spring can't unmarshall bean when using Spring security

1 Answers