Marshalling enum attributes into XML using JAXB and JAXWS Annotations - web-services

Question

Let's say we have the following Java 1.5 enumeration:
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlAccessorType;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
#XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public enum ReturnCode {
OK(0,"Ok"),
ERROR_VALIDATION(1,"Validation Error"),
ERROR_TRANSPORT(2, "Transport Error"),
ERROR_CASE_01(101, "Business situation #01"),
ERROR_CASE_02(102, "Business situation #02"),
ERROR_CASE_03(103, "Business situation #03");
#XmlElement(nillable=false, required=true)
private Integer code = 0;
#XmlElement(nillable=false, required=true)
private String message = null;
private ReturnCode(Integer code, String message) {
this.code = code;
this.message = message;
}
public Integer getCode() {
return code;
}
public String getMessage() {
return message;
}
}
I am using Apache CXF and the generated WSDL, as expected, translates the aforementioned enum into a restriction:
<xsd:simpleType name="ReturnCode">
<xsd:restriction base="xsd:string">
<xsd:enumeration value="OK"/>
<xsd:enumeration value="ERROR_VALIDATION"/>
<xsd:enumeration value="ERROR_TRANSPORT"/>
<xsd:enumeration value="ERROR_CASE_01"/>
<xsd:enumeration value="ERROR_CASE_02"/>
<xsd:enumeration value="ERROR_CASE_03"/>
</xsd:restriction>
</xsd:simpleType>
So far so good and it is a desirable feature. I myself remember to be struggling with such structures before Apache CXF (back when I used XFire).
However, this is not the case here. I want to produce a different result. I want that the enum be translated into a Complex Type and that both attributes code and message are translated into XML elements when an object containing an instance of this enumeration is marshalled. I only want it to not behave like an enum. I know I could accomplish that if I used a plain class instead of an enum. However, I'd very much like to keep it an enum so I kept it type-safe in the java-part of the code.
If the generated WSDL could still have a restriction as to the possible values, it would be the perfect scenario. I could do without it, however. The main thing here would be to keep it a Java 1.5 enum while still marshalling (and generating a WSDL) ReturnCode as a Complex Type with code and message as its elements.
I tried to hint that with the given JAXWS Annotations placed in the enum source code. Is it somehow possible to accomplish that with just those (or some other) annotations? Or would I have to write a custom marshaller/unmarshaller and WSDL-generator?
Thank you very much!
Best regards,
Filipe Fedalto

Answer 1

Use enums in your java server code and translate to complex type in the interface of you service.
Example:
#WebMethod
public ComplexType GetInfo(){
ReturnCode response;
response = ReturnCode.OK;
ComplexType wsResponse;
wsResponse = response.toComplexType()
return wsResponse;
}
#WebMethod
public void PutInfo(ComplexType input){
ReturnCode request = ReturnCode.fromComplexType(input);
//more code
}