Comments on: JAXB Castor Comparison

By: Amin

Amin — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:02:54 +0000

Another case is : when u have a huge code base already in production and all model classes are already existing , same object may be going to JMS , Database or some analytic’s. etc

now for XML
we would not use generated classes – means manually writing annotations to hundred of model classes . which are also used by other layers they have to do testing as well .

By: Amin

Amin — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:55:29 +0000

“For Castor you need to manage the XML file containing the bindings, to configure the application to read it from some where, … etc. On the other side fot JAXB you have everything in the generated class. JAXB seems better here.”

I have used castor on many projects and from what i see is this is Actually an issue with JAXB not any feature..

reason is : 1 we are forced to have annotated classes and it relies on generated classes , from maintenance perspective , its much better to have a binding /mapping file since it is one place where u have all your mappings , vs its spread through out your model classes and n number of classes have to be changed – which also means more testing expense .

In case of Complex object structures with inheritance — to understand how object is mapped to xml i would have to open objects and read annottaions and assuume the xml and which is very impractical

if xml structure changes we can manage it in most cases just by modifying mapping xml .

It also seems to be dependent on schema which is a good feature but shud be an option not mandatory

By: Ziletka

Ziletka — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 18:43:27 +0000

Hi,
thanks for your post.

I have additional reason for Castor: When you use a lot of similar web services in your application you can map different XSD files (with the same definition) to one object.

By: aforCastor

aforCastor — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 13:29:06 +0000

I tried castor with objects and was able to get xmls although mapping didnot work perfectly.
jaxb w’d be pain.
Jaxb-2 is using annotations and is dynamic like castor(probaly using reflection like castor now)

but castor had all that long time back.

castor commiters, pls. add annotations support to kep jaxB folks quiet.

By: Sir Fabel

Sir Fabel — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 22:14:13 +0000

JAXB is part of the JDK => nothing to download, except if you would like to use an “early access” release.
JAXB is maintained by Sun and hence has a more certain future and a better support (documentations, forums, etc).
Did you see all the plugins available?

I tried Castor… and really now, since I use JAXB, I cannot see why I would go back to Castor…

By: Jimmi

Jimmi — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 16:36:06 +0000

Hi,

I like this post, I really liked your suggestion, when we should use castor or JAXB.

“Considering those points I would go for Castor if I would need a simple XML serialization. I’d use JAXB only if I would have to use something more from Java Web Services Developer Pack.”

Thanks,
Jimmi
http://www.rialight.com