Spring 3 MVC and XML example

In Spring 3, one of the feature of “mvc:annotation-driven“, is support for convert object to/from XML file, if JAXB is in project classpath.

In this tutorial, we show you how to convert a return object into XML format and return it back to user via Spring @MVC framework.

Technologies used :

1. Spring 3.0.5.RELEASE
2. JDK 1.6
3. Eclipse 3.6
4. Maven 3

1. Project Dependencies

No extra dependencies, you need to include Spring MVC in your Maven pom.xml only.

	<properties>
		<spring.version>3.0.5.RELEASE</spring.version>
	</properties>

	<dependencies>

		<!-- Spring 3 dependencies -->
		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
			<version>${spring.version}</version>
		</dependency>

		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
			<version>${spring.version}</version>
		</dependency>

		<dependency>
			<groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
			<artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
			<version>${spring.version}</version>
		</dependency>

	</dependencies>

2. Model + JAXB

A simple POJO model and annotated with JAXB annotation, later convert this object into XML output.

package com.mkyong.common.model;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement(name = "coffee")
public class Coffee {

	String name;
	int quanlity;

	public String getName() {
		return name;
	}

	@XmlElement
	public void setName(String name) {
		this.name = name;
	}

	public int getQuanlity() {
		return quanlity;
	}

	@XmlElement
	public void setQuanlity(int quanlity) {
		this.quanlity = quanlity;
	}

	public Coffee(String name, int quanlity) {
		this.name = name;
		this.quanlity = quanlity;
	}

	public Coffee() {
	}
	
}

3. Controller

Add “@ResponseBody” in the method return value, no much detail in the Spring documentation.

As i know, when Spring see

1. Object annotated with JAXB
2. JAXB library existed in classpath
3. “mvc:annotation-driven” is enabled
4. Return method annotated with @ResponseBody

It will handle the conversion automatically.

package com.mkyong.common.controller;

import org.springframework.stereotype.Controller;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PathVariable;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMethod;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.ResponseBody;
import com.mkyong.common.model.Coffee;

@Controller
@RequestMapping("/coffee")
public class XMLController {

	@RequestMapping(value="{name}", method = RequestMethod.GET)
	public @ResponseBody Coffee getCoffeeInXML(@PathVariable String name) {

		Coffee coffee = new Coffee(name, 100);
		
		return coffee;

	}
	
}

4. mvc:annotation-driven

In one of your Spring configuration XML file, enable “mvc:annotation-driven“.

<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
	xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
	xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc" 
	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-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context 
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">

	<context:component-scan base-package="com.mkyong.common.controller" />

	<mvc:annotation-driven />

</beans>

<beans ...>
	<bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.BeanNameViewResolver" />
	
	<bean id="xmlViewer" 
		class="org.springframework.web.servlet.view.xml.MarshallingView">
		<constructor-arg>
		  <bean class="org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Jaxb2Marshaller">
			<property name="classesToBeBound">
				<list>
					<value>com.mkyong.common.model.Coffee</value>
				</list>
			</property>
		  </bean>
		</constructor-arg>
	</bean>
</beans>

5. Demo

URL : http://localhost:8080/SpringMVC/rest/coffee/arabica

Download Source Code

References

1. Spring MVC and Rss example
2. mvc-annotation-driven JavaDoc
3. Jaxb2Marshaller JavaDoc
4. ResponseBody.html JavaDoc