JAXB-RI generating unexpected client code from XmlElementRefs annotated member

Question

This is a snippet from the XSD associated with the WSDL in question.

<complexType name="ValueMapEntry">
  <complexContent>
    <restriction base="{http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}anyType">
      <sequence>
        <choice maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="0">
          <element ref="{namespace...}bi"/>
          <element ref="{namespace...}a"/>
          <element ref="{namespace...}s"/>
          <element ref="{namespace...}b"/>
          <element ref="{namespace...}t"/>
          <element ref="{namespace...}d"/>
          <element ref="{namespace...}dt"/>
          <element ref="{namespace...}dur"/>
          <element ref="{namespace...}de"/>
          <element ref="{namespace...}l"/>
          <element ref="{namespace...}f"/>
        </choice>
      </sequence>
      <attribute name="k" use="required" type="{http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema}string" />
    </restriction>
  </complexContent>
</complexType>

So we have a complex type that contains a list of some other complex types all of which extend the same base class (called Value)

This is all good and generates this in the client java code.....

@XmlElements({
    @XmlElement(name = "de", namespace = "namespace...", type = ValueDecimal.class),
    @XmlElement(name = "l", namespace = "namespace...", type = ValueLong.class),
    @XmlElement(name = "d", namespace = "namespace...", type = ValueDate.class),
    @XmlElement(name = "dt", namespace = "namespace...", type = ValueDateTime.class),
    @XmlElement(name = "dur", namespace = "namespace...", type = ValueDuration.class),
    @XmlElement(name = "a", namespace = "namespace...", type = ValueAnySimpleType.class),
    @XmlElement(name = "f", namespace = "namespace...", type = ValueDouble.class),
    @XmlElement(name = "t", namespace = "namespace...", type = ValueTime.class),
    @XmlElement(name = "s", namespace = "namespace...", type = ValueString.class),
    @XmlElement(name = "b", namespace = "namespace...", type = ValueBoolean.class),
    @XmlElement(name = "bi", namespace = "namespace...", type = ValueBinary.class)
})
protected List<Value> biOrAOrSOrB.....;

However if I change the server side class to be a single item instead of a list i.e. so the WSDL contains <choice> instead of <choice maxOccurs="unbounded" minOccurs="0">

then instead on the client side I get a variable for every possible choice option

@XmlElement(namespace = "namespace...")
protected ValueBinary bi;

@XmlElement(namespace = "namespace...")
protected ValueAnySimpleType a;

@XmlElement(namespace = "namespace...")
protected ValueString s;

@XmlElement(namespace = "namespace...")
protected ValueBoolean b;

etc, you get the general picture. Now since xs:choice allows only one of the items in the choice list, surely this second lot of code that is generated is incorrect, since I should still be getting just one variable ?

I've tried updating to the latest JAXB-RI & JAX-WS and it didn't make any difference.

Am I being dumb or is this a JAXB-RI bug ?

many thanks in advance. Owen

Answer 1

ah if you bash your head against google for long enough you find the answer....

http://blog.bdoughan.com/2011/04/xml-schema-to-java-xsd-choice.html