The Marshaller class is responsible for governing the process of serializing Java content trees back into XML data. It provides the basic marshalling methods:

Assume the following setup code for all following code fragments:

       JAXBContext jc = JAXBContext.newInstance( "com.acme.foo" );
       Unmarshaller u = jc.createUnmarshaller();
       Object element = u.unmarshal( new File( "foo.xml" ) );
       Marshaller m = jc.createMarshaller();
    

Marshalling to a File:

       OutputStream os = new FileOutputStream( "nosferatu.xml" );
       m.marshal( element, os );
    

Marshalling to a SAX ContentHandler:

       // assume MyContentHandler instanceof ContentHandler
       m.marshal( element, new MyContentHandler() );  
    

Marshalling to a DOM Node:

       DocumentBuilderFactory dbf = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
       dbf.setNamespaceAware(true);
       DocumentBuilder db = dbf.newDocumentBuilder();
       Document doc = db.newDocument();

       m.marshal( element, doc );
    

Marshalling to a java.io.OutputStream:

       m.marshal( element, System.out );
    

Marshalling to a java.io.Writer:

       m.marshal( element, new PrintWriter( System.out ) );
    

Marshalling to a javax.xml.transform.SAXResult:

       // assume MyContentHandler instanceof ContentHandler
       SAXResult result = new SAXResult( new MyContentHandler() );

       m.marshal( element, result );
    

Marshalling to a javax.xml.transform.DOMResult:

       DOMResult result = new DOMResult();
       
       m.marshal( element, result );
    

Marshalling to a javax.xml.transform.StreamResult:

       StreamResult result = new StreamResult( System.out );
 
       m.marshal( element, result );
    

Marshalling to a javax.xml.stream.XMLStreamWriter:

       XMLStreamWriter xmlStreamWriter = 
           XMLOutputFactory.newInstance().createXMLStreamWriter( ... );
 
       m.marshal( element, xmlStreamWriter );
    

Marshalling to a javax.xml.stream.XMLEventWriter:

       XMLEventWriter xmlEventWriter = 
           XMLOutputFactory.newInstance().createXMLEventWriter( ... );
 
       m.marshal( element, xmlEventWriter );
    

Marshalling content tree rooted by a JAXB element

The first parameter of the overloaded Marshaller.marshal(java.lang.Object, ...) methods must be a JAXB element as computed by JAXBIntrospector.isElement(java.lang.Object); otherwise, a Marshaller.marshal method must throw a MarshalException. There exist two mechanisms to enable marshalling an instance that is not a JAXB element. One method is to wrap the instance as a value of a JAXBElement, and pass the wrapper element as the first parameter to a Marshaller.marshal method. For java to schema binding, it is also possible to simply annotate the instance's class with @XmlRootElement.

Encoding

By default, the Marshaller will use UTF-8 encoding when generating XML data to a java.io.OutputStream, or a java.io.Writer. Use the setProperty API to change the output encoding used during these marshal operations. Client applications are expected to supply a valid character encoding name as defined in the W3C XML 1.0 Recommendation and supported by your Java Platform.

Validation and Well-Formedness

Client applications are not required to validate the Java content tree prior to calling any of the marshal API's. Furthermore, there is no requirement that the Java content tree be valid with respect to its original schema in order to marshal it back into XML data. Different JAXB Providers will support marshalling invalid Java content trees at varying levels, however all JAXB Providers must be able to marshal a valid content tree back to XML data. A JAXB Provider must throw a MarshalException when it is unable to complete the marshal operation due to invalid content. Some JAXB Providers will fully allow marshalling invalid content, others will fail on the first validation error.

Even when schema validation is not explictly enabled for the marshal operation, it is possible that certain types of validation events will be detected during the operation. Validation events will be reported to the registered event handler. If the client application has not registered an event handler prior to invoking one of the marshal API's, then events will be delivered to a default event handler which will terminate the marshal operation after encountering the first error or fatal error. Note that for JAXB 2.0 and later versions, DefaultValidationEventHandler is no longer used.

Supported Properties

All JAXB Providers are required to support the following set of properties. Some providers may support additional properties.

jaxb.encoding - value must be a java.lang.String

The output encoding to use when marshalling the XML data. The Marshaller will use "UTF-8" by default if this property is not specified.

jaxb.formatted.output - value must be a java.lang.Boolean

This property controls whether or not the Marshaller will format the resulting XML data with line breaks and indentation. A true value for this property indicates human readable indented xml data, while a false value indicates unformatted xml data. The Marshaller will default to false (unformatted) if this property is not specified.

jaxb.schemaLocation - value must be a java.lang.String

This property allows the client application to specify an xsi:schemaLocation attribute in the generated XML data. The format of the schemaLocation attribute value is discussed in an easy to understand, non-normative form in Section 5.6 of the W3C XML Schema Part 0: Primer and specified in Section 2.6 of the W3C XML Schema Part 1: Structures.

jaxb.noNamespaceSchemaLocation - value must be a java.lang.String

This property allows the client application to specify an xsi:noNamespaceSchemaLocation attribute in the generated XML data. The format of the schemaLocation attribute value is discussed in an easy to understand, non-normative form in Section 5.6 of the W3C XML Schema Part 0: Primer and specified in Section 2.6 of the W3C XML Schema Part 1: Structures.

jaxb.fragment - value must be a java.lang.Boolean

This property determines whether or not document level events will be generated by the Marshaller. If the property is not specified, the default is false. This property has different implications depending on which marshal api you are using - when this property is set to true:

• marshal(Object,ContentHandler) - the Marshaller won't invoke ContentHandler.startDocument() and ContentHandler.endDocument().
• marshal(Object,Node) - the property has no effect on this API.
• marshal(Object,OutputStream) - the Marshaller won't generate an xml declaration.
• marshal(Object,Writer) - the Marshaller won't generate an xml declaration.
• marshal(Object,Result) - depends on the kind of Result object, see semantics for Node, ContentHandler, and Stream APIs
• marshal(Object,XMLEventWriter) - the Marshaller will not generate XMLStreamConstants.START_DOCUMENT and XMLStreamConstants.END_DOCUMENT events.
• marshal(Object,XMLStreamWriter) - the Marshaller will not generate XMLStreamConstants.START_DOCUMENT and XMLStreamConstants.END_DOCUMENT events.

Marshal Event Callbacks

"The Marshaller provides two styles of callback mechanisms that allow application specific processing during key points in the unmarshalling process. In 'class defined' event callbacks, application specific code placed in JAXB mapped classes is triggered during marshalling. 'External listeners' allow for centralized processing of marshal events in one callback method rather than by type event callbacks.

Class defined event callback methods allow any JAXB mapped class to specify its own specific callback methods by defining methods with the following method signatures:

   // Invoked by Marshaller after it has created an instance of this object.
   boolean beforeMarshal(Marshaller, Object parent);
 
   // Invoked by Marshaller after it has marshalled all properties of this object.
   void afterMmarshal(Marshaller, Object parent);
 

The class defined event callback methods should be used when the callback method requires access to non-public methods and/or fields of the class.

The external listener callback mechanism enables the registration of a Marshaller.Listener instance with a Marshaller.setListener(Listener). The external listener receives all callback events, allowing for more centralized processing than per class defined callback methods.

The 'class defined' and external listener event callback methods are independent of each other, both can be called for one event. The invocation ordering when both listener callback methods exist is defined in Marshaller.Listener.beforeMarshal(Object) and Marshaller.Listener.afterMarshal(Object).

An event callback method throwing an exception terminates the current marshal process.