How to return an empty tag for a null value in RestEasy ?

[kiranshirali]

I have a POJO that has the following structure:

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlElement;
import javax.xml.bind.annotation.XmlRootElement;

@XmlRootElement(name = "Item")
public class Item implements java.io.Serializable
{
private String attribute1;
    private String attribute2;
   
    @XmlElement
public String getAttribute1() {
  return attribute1;
}
   
    @XmlElement
public String getAttribute2() {
  return attribute2;
}
public void setAttribute1(String attribute1) {
  this.attribute1 = attribute1;
}
public void setAttribute2(String attribute2) {
  this.attribute2 = attribute2;
}
   
}

Now on a webservice call, the XML returned to the client will have the structure:

<Item>

      <attribute1>Some_Value</attribute1>

      <attribute2>Some_Value</attribute2>

</Item>

However suppose any of the attributes are null, then the returned XML does not have that particular attribute tag.

For example, if attribute2 is null then the XML structure is:

<Item>

      <attribute1>Some_Value</attribute1>

</Item>

My requirement is that the attribute tag should remain as an empty tag. The structure should be like:

<Item>

      <attribute1>Some_Value</attribute1>

      <attribute2></attribute2>

</Item>

Is this possible in RestEasy ? What are the changes that I will have to do to implement this? Please can someone help me on this.

[kiranshirali]

I have found a solution to this.

If you have an object that is being returned, then make sure that the object is instanciated.

For example:

If you are returning an object Employee. Then by doing a new Employee() and returning it, we get the following xml tag:

<Employee/>

Simlarly if Employee was a string then ensure that a empty string ("") is being returned and not null. It gives the same effect as above.