Convert Polymorphic Object to XML using JAX-B

When you use polymorphism in your classes and you want to convert your object to XML using JAX-B, here is an example how to.

Abstract Animal Class

package com.memorynotfound.xml.jaxb;

public abstract class Animal {

}

Cat Inherits from Animal

package com.memorynotfound.xml.jaxb;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement(name = "cat")
public class Cat extends Animal {

}

Dog Inherits from Animal

package com.memorynotfound.xml.jaxb;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement(name = "dog")
public class Dog extends Animal {

}

Root entity class for converting list of animals

package com.memorynotfound.xml.jaxb;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElementWrapper;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElements;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;
import java.util.List;

@XmlRootElement(name = "root")
public class Root {

    private List<Animal> animals;

    public List<Animal> getAnimals() {
        return animals;
    }

    @XmlElementWrapper(name = "animals")
    @XmlElements({
            @XmlElement(name = "dog", type = Dog.class),
            @XmlElement(name = "cat", type = Cat.class)
    })
    public void setAnimals(List<Animal> animals) {
        this.animals = animals;
    }
}

Convert Polymorphic Object to XML

package com.memorynotfound.xml.jaxb;

import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBException;
import javax.xml.bind.Marshaller;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;

public class PolymorphismObjectXml {

    public static void main(String... args) throws JAXBException {
        // create object
        List<Animal> animals = new ArrayList<Animal>();
        animals.add(new Dog());
        animals.add(new Cat());

        Root root = new Root();
        root.setAnimals(animals);

        // create jaxb context
        JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(Root.class);

        // create jaxb marshaller
        Marshaller jaxbMarshaller = jaxbContext.createMarshaller();

        // pretty print xml
        jaxbMarshaller.setProperty(Marshaller.JAXB_FORMATTED_OUTPUT, Boolean.TRUE);

        // marshal object
        jaxbMarshaller.marshal(root, System.out);
    }
}

Output

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
<root>
    <animals>
        <dog/>
        <cat/>
    </animals>
</root>