MOXy's Object Graphs - Handling Inheritance

In previous posts we have explored how object graphs can be defined through metadata and programatically.  In this post I'll demonstrate the impact of inheritance in your domain model on how you define object graphs.

You can try this out today by downloading an EclipseLink 2.5.0 nightly download starting on March 24, 2013 from:

• http://www.eclipse.org/eclipselink/downloads/nightly.php

MOXy's Object Graphs & Dynamic JAXB

JAXB (JSR-222) makes it easy for you to convert instances of your domain classes to/from XML.  The EclipseLink MOXy implementation offers an extension called Dynamic JAXB where instead of real classes you have instances of a map like class called DynamicEntity. You can access the data on your DynamicEntity using get and set methods that take the property name (i.e. customer.get("address") and customer.set('name", "Jane Doe").

In this post, first we will bootstrap a dynamic JAXBContext based on an external mapping file.  Then we unmarshal an XML document to dynamic entities, and finally we will apply an object graph to scope the resulting JSON output.

You can try this out today by downloading an EclipseLink 2.5.0 nightly download starting on March 24, 2013 from:

• http://www.eclipse.org/eclipselink/downloads/nightly.php

MOXy's Object Graphs - Partial Models on the Fly to/from XML & JSON

In a previous post I introduced how MOXy's Object Graph feature allows you to input and output partial models.  In that example I demonstrated how to define a partial model via metadata.  In this example we will create the object graphs programmatically.  This gives you additional flexibility when you need to create one on the fly.

You can try this out today by downloading an EclipseLink 2.5.0 nightly download starting on March 24, 2013 from:

• http://www.eclipse.org/eclipselink/downloads/nightly.php

MOXy's Object Graphs - Input/Output Partial Models to XML & JSON

Suppose you have a domain model that you want to expose as a RESTful service.  The problem is you only want to input/output part of your data.  Previously you would have created a separate model representing  the subset and then have code to move data between the models.  In EclipseLink 2.5.0 we have a new feature called Object Graphs that enables you to easily define partial views on your model.

You can try this out today by downloading an EclipseLink 2.5.0 nightly download starting on March 24, 2013 from:

• http://www.eclipse.org/eclipselink/downloads/nightly.php