XML News from Monday, August 15, 2005

The Apache Web Services Project has posted version 0.5 of JaxMe 2, an open source implementation of the Java API for XML Binding. Quoting from the web page,

JaxMe 2 is an open source implementation of JAXB, the specification for Java/XML binding.

A Java/XML binding compiler takes as input a schema description (in most cases an XML schema but it may be a DTD, a RelaxNG schema, a Java class inspected via reflection or a database schema). The output is a set of Java classes:

• A Java bean class compatible with the schema description. (If the schema was obtained via Java reflection, then the original Java bean class.)
• An unmarshaller that converts a conforming XML document into the equivalent Java bean.
• Vice versa, a marshaller that converts the Java bean back into the original XML document.

In the case of JaxMe, the generated classes may also

• Store the Java bean into a database. Preferrably an XML database like eXist, Xindice, or Tamino, but it may also be a relational database like MySQL. (If the schema is sufficiently simple. :-)
• Query the database for bean instances.
• Implement an EJB entity or session bean with the same abilities.

Version 0.5 maps xs:extension to Java inheritance and adds support for mixed content. Excuse me? You mean it didn't support mixed content before now? No matter how many times it happens, I remain amazed when I see products advertise support for basic, sine qua non parts of XML like mixed content or Unicode as new features in the latest version. There are certain companies I've learned to expect this from (and whose press releases I'm very skeptical of as a result) but normally Apache is better than this. OK, this is still only an 0.5 release; and the last version was 0.4 so it's not really all that bad. Nonetheless I think if your tool doesn't support XML, (and if you don't support mixed content you don't support XML) you really shouldn't be advertising it until you fix that.