JAVA EE: Spring and Xstream Integration | Spring Object/XML Mapping

Monday, 28 January 2019

Spring and Xstream Integration | Spring Object/XML Mapping | jaxb marshalling and unmarshalling

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What is Spring OXM and XStream?

Spring OXM (Object/XML Mapping) provides an abstraction layer that simplifies converting Java objects to XML and vice versa. XStream is a lightweight, easy-to-use library that enables XML serialization and deserialization without requiring any complex mapping files or schema generation.

Key Concepts: Marshalling & Unmarshalling

Marshalling: Serializing a Java object (e.g., a Company object) into an XML format.
Unmarshalling: Deserializing XML data back into a structured Java object.

Maven Dependencies

Add the necessary Spring OXM and XStream dependencies to your pom.xml file:

<dependency>
    <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-oxm</artifactId>
    <version>5.3.x</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
    <groupId>com.thoughtworks.xstream</groupId>
    <artifactId>xstream</artifactId>
    <version>1.4.x</version>
</dependency>

Step-by-Step Implementation

1. Define the Java Model (Company Class)

public class Company {
    private int id;
    private String companyName;
    private String ceoName;
    private int numberOfEmployees;

    // Getters and Setters
    public int getId() { return id; }
    public void setId(int id) { this.id = id; }

    public String getCompanyName() { return companyName; }
    public void setCompanyName(String companyName) { this.companyName = companyName; }

    public String getCeoName() { return ceoName; }
    public void setCeoName(String ceoName) { this.ceoName = ceoName; }

    public int getNumberOfEmployees() { return numberOfEmployees; }
    public void setNumberOfEmployees(int numberOfEmployees) { this.numberOfEmployees = numberOfEmployees; }
}

2. Configure Spring XML Configuration

<bean id="xstreamMarshaller" class="org.springframework.oxm.xstream.XStreamMarshaller">
    <property name="aliases">
        <map>
            <entry key="company" value="com.ram.model.Company"/>
        </map>
    </property>
</bean>

3. Marshalling & Unmarshalling Execution

ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext("spring-config.xml");
Marshaller marshaller = (Marshaller) context.getBean("xstreamMarshaller");
Unmarshaller unmarshaller = (Unmarshaller) context.getBean("xstreamMarshaller");

// Convert Object to XML
Company company = new Company();
company.setId(101);
company.setCompanyName("Tech Corp");
company.setCeoName("Alice");
company.setNumberOfEmployees(500);

marshaller.marshal(company, new StreamResult(new FileOutputStream("company.xml")));

// Convert XML to Object
Company resultCompany = (Company) unmarshaller.unmarshal(new StreamSource(new FileInputStream("company.xml")));
System.out.println("Company: " + resultCompany.getCompanyName());

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Spring and Xstream Integration | Spring Object/XML Mapping | jaxb marshalling and unmarshalling

pom.xml

<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0"

    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 http://maven.apache.org/maven-v4_0_0.xsd">

    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>

    <groupId>com.ram.core</groupId>

    <artifactId>SpringDemo</artifactId>

    <packaging>jar</packaging>

    <version>1.0-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <name>SpringDemo</name>

    <url>http://maven.apache.org</url>

    <properties>

        <spring.version>5.1.1.RELEASE</spring.version>

    </properties>

    <dependencies>

        <dependency>

            <groupId>junit</groupId>

            <artifactId>junit</artifactId>

            <version>4.8.2</version>

            <scope>test</scope>

        </dependency>

        <dependency>

            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>

            <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>

            <version>${spring.version}</version>

        </dependency>

        <dependency>

            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>

            <artifactId>spring-context</artifactId>

            <version>${spring.version}</version>

        </dependency>

        <dependency>

            <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>

            <artifactId>spring-oxm</artifactId>

            <version>${spring.version}</version>

        </dependency>

        <!-- https://mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.thoughtworks.xstream/xstream -->

        <dependency>

            <groupId>com.thoughtworks.xstream</groupId>

            <artifactId>xstream</artifactId>

            <version>1.4.10</version>

        </dependency>

    </dependencies>

</project>

Company.java

package com.ram.core.model;

public class Company

{

    private Integer id;

    private String companyName;

    private String ceoName;

    private Integer numberOfEmployees;

    public Integer getId()

    {

        return id;

    }

    public void setId(Integer id)

    {

        this.id = id;

    }

    public String getCompanyName()

    {

        return companyName;

    }

    public void setCompanyName(String companyName)

    {

        this.companyName = companyName;

    }

    public String getCeoName()

    {

        return ceoName;

    }

    public void setCeoName(String ceoName)

    {

        this.ceoName = ceoName;

    }

    public Integer getNumberOfEmployees()

    {

        return numberOfEmployees;

    }

    public void setNumberOfEmployees(Integer numberOfEmployees)

    {

        this.numberOfEmployees = numberOfEmployees;

    }

    @Override

    public String toString()

    {

        return "Company [id=" + id + ", companyName=" + companyName

                + ", ceoName=" + ceoName + ", numberOfEmployees="

                + numberOfEmployees + "]";

    }

}

applicationContext.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"

    xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"

    xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans   

http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-4.3.xsd">

    <bean id="xstreamMarshallerBean"

        class="org.springframework.oxm.xstream.XStreamMarshaller">

        <property name="annotatedClasses"

            value="com.ram.core.model.Company"></property>

    </bean>

</beans>

App.java

package com.ram.core;

import java.io.FileInputStream;

import java.io.FileNotFoundException;

import java.io.FileWriter;

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;

import com.ram.core.model.Company;

public class App

{

    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException

    {

        ApplicationContext context = new ClassPathXmlApplicationContext(

                "applicationContext.xml");

        convertObjectToXML(context);

        convertXMLToObject(context);

    }

    private static void convertObjectToXML(ApplicationContext context)

            throws IOException

    {

        Marshaller marshaller = (Marshaller) context

                .getBean("xstreamMarshallerBean");

        // Perform Marshaling

        Company company = new Company();

        company.setId(201);

        company.setCompanyName("Google");

        company.setCeoName("Peter");

        company.setNumberOfEmployees(50000);

        marshaller.marshal(company,

                new StreamResult(new FileWriter("company.xml")));

        System.out.println("XML Created Sucessfully");

    }

    private static void convertXMLToObject(ApplicationContext context)

            throws FileNotFoundException, IOException

    {

        Unmarshaller unmarshaller = (Unmarshaller) context

                .getBean("xstreamMarshallerBean");    

        FileInputStream is = null;

        try

        {

            is = new FileInputStream("company.xml");

            Object object = unmarshaller.unmarshal(new StreamSource(is));

            System.out.println(object);

            System.out.println("Converted XML to Object!");

        }

        finally

        {

            if (is != null)

            {

                is.close();

            }

        }

    }

}

Output:

XML Created Sucessfully

Security framework of XStream not initialized, XStream is probably vulnerable.

Company [id=201, companyName=Google, ceoName=Peter, numberOfEmployees=50000]

Converted XML to Object!

company.xml

<com.ram.core.model.Company><id>201</id><companyName>Google</companyName><ceoName>Peter</ceoName><numberOfEmployees>50000</numberOfEmployees></com.ram.core.model.Company>