JAXB Custom Binding – Java.util.Date / Spring 3 Serialization

jaxb can handle java.util.date serialization, but it expects the following format: “yyyy-mm-ddthh:mm:ss “. what if you need to format the date object in another format?

i had the same issue when i was working with spring mvc 3 and jackson json processor , and recently, i faced the same issue working with spring mvc 3 and jaxb for xml serialization .

let’s dig into the issue:

problem:

i have the following java beans which i want to serialize in xml using spring mvc 3:

package com.loiane.model;
 
import java.util.date;
 
public class company {
 
    private int id;
 
    private string company;
 
    private double price;
 
    private double change;
 
    private double pctchange;
 
    private date lastchange;
 
    //getters and setters

and i have another object which is going to wrap the pojo above:

package com.loiane.model;
 
import java.util.list;
 
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.xmlelement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.xmlrootelement;
 
@xmlrootelement(name="companies")
public class companies {
 
    @xmlelement(required = true)
    private list<company> list;
 
    public void setlist(list<company> list) {
        this.list = list;
    }
}

in my spring controller, i’m going to return a list of company through the the @responsebody annotation – which is going to serialize the object automatically with jaxb:

@requestmapping(value="/company/view.action")
public @responsebody companies view() throws exception {}

when i call the controller method, this is what it returns to the view:

<companies>
    <list>
        <change>0.02</change>
        <company>3m co</company>
        <id>1</id>
        <lastchange>2011-09-01t00:00:00-03:00</lastchange>
        <pctchange>0.03</pctchange>
        <price>71.72</price>
    </list>
    <list>
        <change>0.42</change>
        <company>alcoa inc</company>
        <id>2</id>
        <lastchange>2011-09-01t00:00:00-03:00</lastchange>
        <pctchange>1.47</pctchange>
        <price>29.01</price>
    </list>
</companies>

note the date format. it is not the format i expect it to return. i need to serialize the date in the following format: “ mm-dd-yyyy “

solution:

i need to create a class extending the xmladapter and override the marshal and unmarshal methods and in these methods i am going to format the date as i need to:

package com.loiane.util;
 
import java.text.simpledateformat;
import java.util.date;
 
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.xmladapter;
 
public class jaxbdateserializer extends xmladapter<string, date>{
 
    private simpledateformat dateformat = new simpledateformat("mm-dd-yyyy");
 
    @override
    public string marshal(date date) throws exception {
        return dateformat.format(date);
    }
 
    @override
    public date unmarshal(string date) throws exception {
        return dateformat.parse(date);
    }
}

and in my java bean class, i simply need to add the @xmljavatypeadapter annotation in the get method of the date property.

package com.loiane.model;
 
import java.util.date;
 
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.adapters.xmljavatypeadapter;
 
import com.loiane.util.jaxbdateserializer;
 
public class company {
 
    private int id;
 
    private string company;
 
    private double price;
 
    private double change;
 
    private double pctchange;
 
    private date lastchange;
 
    @xmljavatypeadapter(jaxbdateserializer.class)
    public date getlastchange() {
        return lastchange;
    }
    //getters and setters
}

if we try to call the controller method again, it is going to return the following xml:

<companies>
    <list>
        <change>0.02</change>
        <company>3m co</company>
        <id>1</id>
        <lastchange>09-01-2011</lastchange>
        <pctchange>0.03</pctchange>
        <price>71.72</price>
    </list>
    <list>
        <change>0.42</change>
        <company>alcoa inc</company>
        <id>2</id>
        <lastchange>09-01-2011</lastchange>
        <pctchange>1.47</pctchange>
        <price>29.01</price>
    </list>
</companies>

problem solved!

happy coding!

from http://loianegroner.com/2011/06/jaxb-custom-binding-java-util-date-spring-3-serialization/