4 Replies Latest reply on Nov 20, 2009 4:03 PM by dhcinc

    Seam and JAXB - Am I trying to do too much?

    dhcinc

      I am in the process of setting up a REST service based on a Seam framework using JAXB.


      One of the issues I am dealing with is how to represent the data in three contexts without having to maintain multiple files. The three contexts are: object, xml and database.


      For example, I want to have a database table named 'FOO' that is an entity. The data in that entity also has an XML representation (for use in REST) and, ultimately, an object representation in the REST client.


      My original thought was to use annotations to mark the Java file with both the persistence annotations (@Table, @Column, etc.) and the JAXB annotations (@XmlElement, etc.) so that there was one place for both the entity and the XML. I could then use JAXB to unmarshall the XML to an object in the client by referencing the Java class.


      So, I would have a Java class named 'Foo' that had persistence annotations for the entity 'FOO' and JAXB annotations for the XmlRootElement named 'foo'.


      All this sort of hung together until I started dealing with lists of results. That is, where the XML represents a list of database entities. Individually, I can model the XML to object mapping and the database to object mapping but I do not have a good idea how to handle the database to XML to object mapping using only one Java file.


      Is it even possible to do this in one Java file or should I be treating the database entities more like DAOs and the XML more as combinations of DAOs? It seems like there will be a lot of repetition between the DAO and the XML in most cases where a single row of the database is returned but it may be the only way to handle the case where multiple rows of the database are returned.


      I welcome all thoughts on the matter.

        • 1. Re: Seam and JAXB - Am I trying to do too much?
          asookazian

          Not sure if this is the best idea but I would try to convert everything into objects (so the main problem being converting XML into objects).  You need a common denominator, no?  Objects it is...


          You may want to look at RESTeasy as well...

          • 2. Re: Seam and JAXB - Am I trying to do too much?
            dhcinc

            Thanks for the reply.


            In a sense, I already have objects in that the Entity and XML annotations are applied to the base Java class object.


            With respect to RESTeasy, I am using it to provide the REST service but it really doesn't come into play here since it is more of a way of annotating the HTTP conversation between REST clients and the service.


            What I am trying to achieve is a conversation sequence that looks this this:


            web - object - XML - HTTP/REST - XML - object - entity (i.e. the request)


            and then the response


            entity - object - XML - HTTP - JAXB - object - web (i.e. the response)


            If I choose to make the XML classes different from the DAO classes, I can get all this to work but I will then need to keep two classes in sync with each other (database entities and XML). I was trying to see if there was a way to use one class to achieve the same ends.

            • 3. Re: Seam and JAXB - Am I trying to do too much?
              lvdberg

              Hi,


              I basically did that. We had to interface with numrous sources from plain text over email up to flull-blown web-services. All information must be gathered, validated, filtered and fusioned and must be given back to all users (via a web-page or web-service). Our core is a domain model (or canonical datamodel or whatever you want to call it) and it is implemented using JPA. The entities contain all annotations for the entity, validation and marshalling.


              Whatever you do, the most important thing you need to keep in mind is that the objects are represented differently. So the rich objectmodel must be annotated in such a way that you can store it and XML'it.


              For the first you need to decide on the how to efficiently make the ORM. The most optimal Database scheme doesn't necesarely gets you the most effective objects, so its a matter of choosing the most optimal setting for your specific needs. I choose to implement with the object-model as basis, so some DB-constructs can't be used easily. An additional trick is to define DB-Views and map additional entities to these views. depending on your choice of DB This can rocket your application to light-speed.


              For the second (XML) part keep in mind that objects tend to have a lot of references and the most complex ones: to themmselves, meaning that XML-marshalling is quite memory expensive or even impossible. Here you need to use the XML transient annotation a lot without loosing functionality.


              To make life easy I use Maven especially to build from the XML-Schema; there is a nice plugin for XJC. For the DB-part I use seam-gen a lot and a lot of try-and-error agony and headache. But I am where I want to be.


              RestEasy saved my day for implementing services and in combination with Seam it gets even better.


              In short: your idea is feasible but takes a time.


              Success,


              Leo



              • 4. Re: Seam and JAXB - Am I trying to do too much?
                dhcinc

                Thanks for the comments. It's nice to know that what I was thinking about is possible. I'm going to have to think about the trade off between the de-normalized database schema and the object model vs. keeping entity and business objects in separate packages.


                I agree with your comments about RESTeasy and XJC. I am using both heavily on this project.