# XML layout and in-memory data layout

Your program sometimes needs to have a different in-memory data structure from its XML representation. JAXB has a few different ways to achieve this.

## XmlJavaTypeAdapter

`XmlJavaTypeAdapter` allows you to de-couple the in-memory representation and the XML representation by introducing an intermediate representation. The basic model is as follows:

    In-memory objects  <===>  Intermediate objects   <===>
    XML
                      adapter                         JAXB

Your adapter code will be responsible for converting in-memory objects to/from intermediate objects. Intermediate objects are then bound to XML by following the standard JAXB rules. See `XmlAdapter` for a general description of how adapters works.

Adapters extend from the `XmlAdapter` class and provide two methods "unmarshal" and "marshal" that converts values in both directions, and then the `XmlJavaTypeAdapter` annotation is used to tell JAXB where and what adapters kick in.

(TODO: more info about XmlJavaTypeAdapter needed)

1. adapting a class

2. adapting a property

3. adapting an external class

4. adapting a collection and its effect

5. adapting and using interfaces

## Using XmlJavaTypeAdapter for element/attribute values

One of the common use cases of `XmlJavaTypeAdapter` is to map a "value object" to a string in XML. The following example illustrates how to do this, by using `java.awt.Color` as an example.

Mapping Color to #RRGGBB

    @XmlRootElement
    class Box {
      @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(ColorAdapter.class)
      @XmlElement
      Color fill;
    }

    class ColorAdapter extends XmlAdapter<String,Color> {
      public Color unmarshal(String s) {
        return Color.decode(s);
      }
      public String marshal(Color c) {
        return "#"+Integer.toHexString(c.getRGB());
      }
    }

This maps to the following XML representation:

Box instance

    <box>
      <fill>#112233</fill>
    </box>

Since `XmlJavaTypeAdapter` is on a field, this adapter only kicks in for this particular field. If you have many `Color` fields and would like them all to use the same adapter, you can move the annotation to a package:

package-info.java

    @XmlJavaTypeAdapter(type=Color.class,value=ColorAdapter.class)
    package foo;

Box.java

    @XmlRootElement
    class Box {
      @XmlElement Color fill;
      @XmlElement Color border;
    }

This causes all the fields in the classes in the `foo` package to use the same specified adapter.

Also see the `DatatypeConverter` class that defines a series of basic conversion routines that you may find useful.

## Pair property

Another useful technique is to define two properties, one for JAXB and the other for your application. See the following example:

Pair property sample

    @XmlRootElement
    class Person {
      private int age;

      // This public property is for users
      @XmlTransient
      public int getAge() {
        return age;
      }
      public void setAge(int age) {
        this.age = age;
      }

      // This property is for JAXB
      @XmlAttribute(name="age")
      private String getAge_() {
        if(age==-1)  return "dead";
        else         return String.valueOf(age);
      }
      private void setAge_(String v) throws NumberFormatException {
        if(v.equals("dead"))   this.age=-1;
        else                   this.age=Integer.parseInt(age);
    }

The main "`age`" property is public, but marked as `XmlTransient` , so it's exposed in your program, but JAXB will not map this to XML. There's another private "`age_`" property. Since this is marked with `XmlAttribute` , this is what JAXB is going to use to map to the attribute. The getter and setter methods on this property will handle the conversion between the in-memory representation and the XML representation.