specify type for IDREF in XML schema

Question

I am generating Java objects from an XML schema using xjc. I would like to reference the same element multiple times within the document using IDREF. I would also like to constrain the objects referenced by IDREF to a specific type. I'd like to do this for the purposes of schema validation, but also so that in the Java code, the referenced object is returned as a specific type instead of type Object. For example, say I want a schema to describe the following:

<teams>
  <team id="team1">
    <coach>coachz</coach>
    <player>homestar</player>
    <player>marzipan</player>
    <player>strongsad</player>
    <player>strongbad</player>
  </team>

  <team id="team2">
    <coach>bubs</coach>
    <player>homesar</player>
    <player>thecheat</player>
    <player>poopsmith</player>
    <player>bubs</player>
  </team>

  <team id="allstars">
    <coach>poopsmith</coach>
    <player>coachz</player>
    <player>bubs</player>
    <player>kingoftown</player>
    <player>strongbad</player>
  </team>
</teams>

<people>
 <person id="coachz">Coach Z</person>
 <person id="homesar">Homesar</person>
 <person id="homestar">Homestar</person>
 <person id="strongbad">Strong Bad</person>
 <person id="strongsad">Strong Sad</person>
 <person id="marzipan">Marzipan</person>
 <person id="bubs">Bubs</person>
 <person id="kingoftown">King of Town</person>
 <person id="poopsmith">The Poopsmith</person>
 <person id="thecheat">The Cheat</person>
</people>

I can define player like this:

<xs:element name="player" type="xs:IDREF" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>

but then in the Java code, when I try to retrieve a player it will come back as type object, and I have to cast it to a person. At that point, if someone has mistakenly referenced a Team object, I have errors to deal with that could have been caught at validation. I want to specify something like this:

<xs:element name="player" type="xs:IDREF"reftype="person"maxOccurs="unbounded" />

But as far as I can tell, there is no way to specify a type as I have done here with the contrived attribute 'reftype'. Can this be done, using IDREF? If not, is there another method?

A ref to Homestar Runner? +1 – james.garriss Jun 15 '16 at 15:25 — james.garriss, Jun 15 '16 at 15:25

score 13 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 29 '13 at 22:28

You can simply apply baseType binding to your player element. Something like:

<jaxb:bindings node="xsd:element[@name='player']">
    <jaxb:property>
        <jaxb:baseType name="....Person"/>
    </jaxb:property>
</jaxb:bindings>

You may need to figure out the correct binding location for your schema.

Example from my code:

Schema:

<xsd:complexType name="HJIII-53-A">
    <xsd:sequence>
        <xsd:element name="b" type="xsd:IDREF"/>
        <xsd:element name="b1" type="test:HJIII-53-B"/>
        <xsd:element name="c" type="xsd:IDREFS"/>
        <xsd:element name="c1" type="test:HJIII-53-C" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
    </xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>

Bindings:

<jaxb:bindings schemaLocation="schema.xsd" node="/xsd:schema">
    <jaxb:globalBindings localScoping="toplevel">
        <jaxb:serializable/>
    </jaxb:globalBindings>
    <jaxb:bindings node="xsd:complexType[@name='HJIII-53-A']//xsd:element[@name='b']">
        <jaxb:property>
            <jaxb:baseType name="org.jvnet.hyperjaxb3.ejb.tests.issuesjpa2.HJIII53B"/>
        </jaxb:property>
    </jaxb:bindings>
    <jaxb:bindings node="xsd:complexType[@name='HJIII-53-A']//xsd:element[@name='c']">
        <jaxb:property>
            <jaxb:baseType name="org.jvnet.hyperjaxb3.ejb.tests.issuesjpa2.HJIII53C"/>
        </jaxb:property>
    </jaxb:bindings>
</jaxb:bindings>

Generated code:

@XmlElement(required = true, type = Object.class)
@XmlIDREF
@XmlSchemaType(name = "IDREF")
protected org.jvnet.hyperjaxb3.ejb.tests.issuesjpa2.HJIII53B b;
@XmlElement(required = true)
protected org.jvnet.hyperjaxb3.ejb.tests.issuesjpa2.HJIII53B b1;
@XmlList
@XmlElement(required = true, type = Object.class)
@XmlIDREF
protected List<org.jvnet.hyperjaxb3.ejb.tests.issuesjpa2.HJIII53C> c;
protected List<org.jvnet.hyperjaxb3.ejb.tests.issuesjpa2.HJIII53C> c1;

See: https://svn.java.net/svn/hj3~svn/trunk/ejb/tests/issues-jpa2/src/main/resources/

Worked like a charm! I am using inline annotations. I'll add an answer showing how I did it. — undefined, Apr 29 '13 at 23:10
ha ! the jaxb bindings is exactly what I was looking for. Thanks ! Sadly it does not seem to play nicely with the generated hashcode function from jaxb2-basics — Newtopian, Sep 20 '16 at 18:52

score 11 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 29 '13 at 23:20

lexicore's answer gave me what I need (and I suggest voting up his answer over mine). However I am using inline annotations instead of a separate bindings file. This is what it looks like with inline annotations, using my Homestar example:

<xs:element name="player" type="xs:IDREF" maxoccurs="unbounded">
  <xs:annotation>
    <xs:appinfo>
      <jaxb:property>
        <jaxb:baseType name="Person"/>
      </jaxb:property>
    </xs:appinfo>
  </xs:annotation>
</xs:element>

specify type for IDREF in XML schema

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