XStream - Converters

XStream converters are the key components of the XStream library, which are responsible to convert an object to XML and vice versa. XStream provides numerous converters for common types such as primitives, String, File, Collections, arrays, and Dates.

Using Converter

Let us use a SingleValueConvertor whose purpose is to convert an object into a single string. We will use SingleValueConvertor to write an object as attribute string.

Create a Converter

class NameConverter implements SingleValueConverter {

   public Object fromString(String name) {
      String[] nameparts = name.split(",");
      return new Name(nameparts[0], nameparts[1]);
   }
   
   public String toString(Object name) {
      return ((Name)name).getFirstName() + "," + ((Name)name).getLastName();
   }
   
   public boolean canConvert(Class type) {
      return type.equals(Name.class);
   } 
}

Register a Converter

xstream.registerConverter(new NameConverter());

Example without Converter

Let us first test the code without converter in XStream.
Create a java class file named XStreamTester in C:\>XStream_WORKSPACE\com\tutorialspoint\xstream.
File: XStreamTester.java

package com.tutorialspoint.xstream;

import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;

import javax.xml.transform.OutputKeys;
import javax.xml.transform.Source;
import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
import javax.xml.transform.sax.SAXSource;
import javax.xml.transform.sax.SAXTransformerFactory;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;

import org.xml.sax.InputSource;

import com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.annotations.XStreamAlias;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.annotations.XStreamAsAttribute;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.io.xml.StaxDriver;

public class XStreamTester {
   public static void main(String args[]){
   
      XStreamTester tester = new XStreamTester();
      XStream xstream = new XStream(new StaxDriver());
      Student student = tester.getStudentDetails();
      xstream.autodetectAnnotations(true);
      
      //Object to XML Conversion
      String xml = xstream.toXML(student);
      System.out.println(formatXml(xml));
   }
   
   private Student getStudentDetails(){
      Student student = new Student("Mahesh","Parashar");
      return student;
   }
   
   public static String formatXml(String xml){
   
      try{
      
         Transformer serializer = SAXTransformerFactory.newInstance().newTransformer();
         
         serializer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.INDENT, "yes");
         serializer.setOutputProperty("{http://xml.apache.org/xslt}indent-amount", "2");
         
         Source xmlSource = new SAXSource(new InputSource(new ByteArrayInputStream(xml.getBytes())));
         StreamResult res =  new StreamResult(new ByteArrayOutputStream());
         
         serializer.transform(xmlSource, res);
         
         return new String(((ByteArrayOutputStream)res.getOutputStream()).toByteArray());
         
      }catch(Exception e){
         return xml;
      }
   }
}

@XStreamAlias("student")
class Student {

   @XStreamAlias("name")
   @XStreamAsAttribute
   private Name studentName;

   public Student(String firstName, String lastName) {
      this.studentName = new Name(firstName, lastName);
   }

   public Name getName(){
      return studentName;
   } 
}

class Name {
   private String firstName;
   private String lastName;

   public Name(String firstName, String lastName) {
      this.firstName = firstName;
      this.lastName = lastName;
   }

   public String getFirstName(){
      return firstName;
   }

   public String getLastName(){
      return lastName;
   }     
}

Verify the Result
Compile the classes using javac compiler as follows:

C:\XStream_WORKSPACE\com\tutorialspoint\xstream>javac XStreamTester.java

Now run the XStreamTester to see the result:

C:\XStream_WORKSPACE\com\tutorialspoint\xstream>java XStreamTester

Verify the output as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<student>
   <name>
      <firstName>Mahesh</firstName>
      <lastName>Parashar</lastName>
   </name>
</student>

Example with Converter

Let us now test the code with converter in XStream.
Create a java class file named XStreamTester in C:\>XStream_WORKSPACE\com\tutorialspoint\xstream.
File: XStreamTester.java

package com.tutorialspoint.xstream;

import java.io.ByteArrayInputStream;
import java.io.ByteArrayOutputStream;

import javax.xml.transform.OutputKeys;
import javax.xml.transform.Source;
import javax.xml.transform.Transformer;
import javax.xml.transform.sax.SAXSource;
import javax.xml.transform.sax.SAXTransformerFactory;
import javax.xml.transform.stream.StreamResult;

import org.xml.sax.InputSource;

import com.thoughtworks.xstream.XStream;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.annotations.XStreamAlias;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.annotations.XStreamAsAttribute;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.SingleValueConverter;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.io.xml.StaxDriver;

public class XStreamTester {
   public static void main(String args[]){
   
      XStreamTester tester = new XStreamTester();
      XStream xstream = new XStream(new StaxDriver());
      Student student = tester.getStudentDetails();  
      
      xstream.autodetectAnnotations(true);
      xstream.registerConverter(new NameConverter());
      
      //Object to XML Conversion
      String xml = xstream.toXML(student);
      System.out.println(formatXml(xml));  
   } 

   private Student getStudentDetails(){
      Student student = new Student("Mahesh","Parashar");  
      return student;
   }

   public static String formatXml(String xml){
      try{
      
         Transformer serializer = SAXTransformerFactory.newInstance().newTransformer();
         
         serializer.setOutputProperty(OutputKeys.INDENT, "yes");         
         serializer.setOutputProperty("{http://xml.apache.org/xslt}indent-amount", "2");
         
         Source xmlSource = new SAXSource(new InputSource(new ByteArrayInputStream(xml.getBytes())));
         StreamResult res = new StreamResult(new ByteArrayOutputStream());            
         
         serializer.transform(xmlSource, res);
         
         return new String(((ByteArrayOutputStream)res.getOutputStream()).toByteArray());
         
      }catch(Exception e){   
         return xml;
      }
   }
}

@XStreamAlias("student")
class Student {

   @XStreamAlias("name")
   @XStreamAsAttribute 
   private Name studentName;

   public Student(String firstName, String lastName) {
      this.studentName = new Name(firstName, lastName);
   }

   public Name getName(){
      return studentName;
   } 
}

class Name {
   private String firstName;
   private String lastName;

   public Name(String firstName, String lastName) {
      this.firstName = firstName;
      this.lastName = lastName;
   }

   public String getFirstName(){
      return firstName;
   }

   public String getLastName(){
      return lastName;
   }     
}

class NameConverter implements SingleValueConverter  {

   public Object fromString(String name) {
      String[] nameparts = name.split(",");
      return new Name(nameparts[0], nameparts[1]);
   }

   public String toString(Object name) {
      return ((Name)name).getFirstName() + "," + ((Name)name).getLastName();
   }

   public boolean canConvert(Class type) {
      return type.equals(Name.class);
   }
}

Verify the Result
Compile the classes using javac compiler as follows:

C:\XStream_WORKSPACE\com\tutorialspoint\xstream>javac XStreamTester.java

Now run the XStreamTester to see the result:

C:\XStream_WORKSPACE\com\tutorialspoint\xstream>java XStreamTester

Verify the output as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<student name="Mahesh,Parashar"/>

Custom Converter