Creating an XML with attributes and dynamic values using JAXB

Question

I want to Create an XML using JAXB. It should have attributes in it whose values have to come from a property defined in corresponding class.

The current output is giving a property as a child tag, and not as an attribute in the main tag.

The Structure of my desired XML is as follows.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<company>
    <department name="hr">
        <branch name="hr-recruitment">
            <manager> Manasa </manager>
            <phone>992222222</phone>
            <salary> 20000 </salary>
        </branch>
        <branch name="hr-finance">
            <manager> Sunder </manager>
            <phone>993333332</phone>
            <salary> 50000 </salary>
        </branch>
    </department>
    <department name="transport">
        <branch name="transport-employee">
            <manager> Raman </manager>
            <phone>888888888</phone>
            <salary> 30000 </salary>
        </branch>
        <branch name="transport-goods">
            <manager> Sheela </manager>
            <phone>99999999</phone>
            <salary> 75000 </salary>
        </branch>
    </department>
</company> 

Here are the 3 classes marked with the JAXB annotations:

1) company.class

@XmlRootElement(name = "tarang")
public class Company {

    private List<Department> listDepartments;

    public Company(List<Department> listDepartments) {
        this.listDepartments = listDepartments;
    }

    public Company() {

    }

    @XmlElementRef
    public List<Department> getListDepartments() {
        return listDepartments;
    }

    public void setListDepartments(ArrayList<Department> listDepartments) {
        this.listDepartments = listDepartments;
    }

}

2) Department.class

@XmlRootElement(name = "department")
public class Department {

    private String strDepartmentName;

    private List<Branch> listBranchs;

    public Department(String strDepartmentName, List<Branch> listBranchs) {
        this.strDepartmentName = strDepartmentName;
        this.listBranchs = listBranchs;
    }

    public Department() {

    }

    @XmlElement(name = "name")
    public String getStrDepartmentName() {
        return strDepartmentName;
    }

    public void setStrDepartmentName(String strDepartmentName) {
        this.strDepartmentName = strDepartmentName;
    }

    @XmlElementRef
    public List<Branch> getListBranchs() {
        return listBranchs;
    }

    public void setListBranchs(List<Branch> listBranchs) {
        this.listBranchs = listBranchs;
    }

}

3) Branch.class

@XmlRootElement(name = "branch")
public class Branch {

    private String strName;
    private String strManagerName;
    private String strPhone;
    private int intSalary;

    public Branch(String strName, String strManagerName, String strPhone,
            int intSalary) {
        this.strName = strName;
        this.strManagerName = strManagerName;
        this.strPhone = strPhone;
        this.intSalary = intSalary;
    }

    public Branch() {
        // TODO Auto-generated constructor stub
    }

    @XmlElement(name = "name")
    public String getStrName() {
        return strName;
    }

    public void setStrName(String strName) {
        this.strName = strName;
    }

    @XmlElement(name = "manager")
    public String getStrManagerName() {
        return strManagerName;
    }

    public void setStrManagerName(String strManagerName) {
        this.strManagerName = strManagerName;
    }

    @XmlElement(name = "phone")
    public String getStrPhone() {
        return strPhone;
    }

    public void setStrPhone(String strPhone) {
        this.strPhone = strPhone;
    }

    @XmlElement(name = "salary")
    public int getIntSalary() {
        return intSalary;
    }

    public void setIntSalary(int intSalary) {
        this.intSalary = intSalary;
    }

}

My current design contains 3 classes.

1) Company 2) Department 3) Branch

The relations are:

1) class Company -has a- List of Departments.
2) class Department -has a- name (String).
3) class Department -has a- List of Branches.
4) class Branch -has a- name (String)
5) class Branch -has a- manager (String)
6) class Branch -has a- phone (String)
7) class Branch -has a- salary (String)

The current Output is:

 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
    <tarang>
        <department>
            <branch>
                <salary>50000</salary>
                <manager>Manasa</manager>
                <name>hr-recruitment</name>
                <phone>999999999</phone>
            </branch>
            <branch>
                <salary>40000</salary>
                <manager>Sundar</manager>
                <name>hr-finance</name>
                <phone>888888888</phone>
            </branch>
            <name>hr</name>
        </department>
        <department>
            <branch>
                <salary>30000</salary>
                <manager>Raman</manager>
                <name>transport-employee</name>
                <phone>7777777777</phone>
            </branch>
            <branch>
                <salary>20000</salary>
                <manager>Sheela</manager>
                <name>transport-goods</name>
                <phone>6666666666</phone>
            </branch>
            <name>tranport</name>
        </department>
    </tarang>

The name of the department, and name of the branch is not getting appended as a attribute. Please suggest me the corrections in the classes, where the @xmlattribute annotation has to be applied for me to get the desired output.

Answer 1

@XmlAttribute should be added to the field declaration as follows in your Department class:

@XmlAttribute(name = "name")
private String strDepartmentName;

See here for more details about XmlAttribute annotation.