XmlSeeAlso (Java Platform SE 7 ) (original) (raw)

@Target(value=TYPE)
@Retention(value=RUNTIME)
public @interface XmlSeeAlso
Instructs JAXB to also bind other classes when binding this class.
Java makes it impractical/impossible to list all sub-classes of a given class. This often gets in a way of JAXB users, as it JAXB cannot automatically list up the classes that need to be known to JAXBContext.
For example, with the following class definitions:
class Animal {}
class Dog extends Animal {}
class Cat extends Animal {}

The user would be required to create JAXBContext asJAXBContext.newInstance(Dog.class,Cat.class) (Animal will be automatically picked up since Dog and Cat refers to it.)
XmlSeeAlso annotation would allow you to write:
@XmlSeeAlso({Dog.class,Cat.class})
class Animal {}
class Dog extends Animal {}
class Cat extends Animal {}

This would allow you to do JAXBContext.newInstance(Animal.class). By the help of this annotation, JAXB implementations will be able to correctly bind Dog and Cat.
Since:
JAXB2.1

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