Use JAXB to create Object from XML String

Question

How can I use the below code to unmarshal a XML string an map it to the JAXB object below?

JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(Person.class);
Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jaxbContext.createUnmarshaller();
Person person = (Person) unmarshaller.unmarshal("xml string here");

---

@XmlRootElement(name = "Person")
public class Person {
    @XmlElement(name = "First-Name")
    String firstName;
    @XmlElement(name = "Last-Name")
    String lastName;
    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }
    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }
    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }
    public void setLastName(String lastName) {
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }
}

Answer 1

To pass XML content, you need to wrap the content in a Reader, and unmarshal that instead:

JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(Person.class);
Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jaxbContext.createUnmarshaller();

StringReader reader = new StringReader("xml string here");
Person person = (Person) unmarshaller.unmarshal(reader);

Answer 2

Or if you want a simple one-liner:

Person person = JAXB.unmarshal(new StringReader("<?xml ..."), Person.class);

Answer 3

There is no unmarshal(String) method. You should use a Reader:

Person person = (Person) unmarshaller.unmarshal(new StringReader("xml string"));

But usually you are getting that string from somewhere, for example a file. If that's the case, better pass the FileReader itself.

Answer 4

If you already have the xml, and comes more than one attribute, you can handle it as follows:

String output = "<ciudads><ciudad><idCiudad>1</idCiudad>
<nomCiudad>BOGOTA</nomCiudad></ciudad><ciudad><idCiudad>6</idCiudad>
<nomCiudad>Pereira</nomCiudad></ciudads>";
DocumentBuilder db = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance()
    .newDocumentBuilder();
InputSource is = new InputSource();
is.setCharacterStream(new StringReader(output));

Document doc = db.parse(is);
NodeList nodes = ((org.w3c.dom.Document) doc)
    .getElementsByTagName("ciudad");

for (int i = 0; i < nodes.getLength(); i++) {           
    Ciudad ciudad = new Ciudad();
    Element element = (Element) nodes.item(i);

    NodeList name = element.getElementsByTagName("idCiudad");
    Element element2 = (Element) name.item(0);
    ciudad.setIdCiudad(Integer
        .valueOf(getCharacterDataFromElement(element2)));

    NodeList title = element.getElementsByTagName("nomCiudad");
    element2 = (Element) title.item(0);
    ciudad.setNombre(getCharacterDataFromElement(element2));

    ciudades.getPartnerAccount().add(ciudad);
}
}

for (Ciudad ciudad1 : ciudades.getPartnerAccount()) {
System.out.println(ciudad1.getIdCiudad());
System.out.println(ciudad1.getNombre());
}

the method getCharacterDataFromElement is

public static String getCharacterDataFromElement(Element e) {
Node child = e.getFirstChild();
if (child instanceof CharacterData) {
CharacterData cd = (CharacterData) child;

return cd.getData();
}
return "";
}

Answer 5

If you want to parse using InputStreams

public Object xmlToObject(String xmlDataString) {
        Object converted = null;
        try {
        
            JAXBContext jc = JAXBContext.newInstance(Response.class);
        
            Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jc.createUnmarshaller();
            InputStream stream = new ByteArrayInputStream(xmlDataString.getBytes(StandardCharsets.UTF_8));
            
            converted = unmarshaller.unmarshal(stream);
        } catch (JAXBException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return converted;
    }