Difference of Maven JAXB plugins

java maven-2 jaxb maven maven-plugin

98,472

Solution 1

Let's summarize. We have/had:

Based on the comments of this thread, I've always used the maven-jaxb2-plugin (i.e. plugin #1):

Concerning the org.jvnet.jaxb2.maven2:maven-jaxb2-plugin versus com.sun.tools.xjc.maven2:maven-jaxb-plugin, from my point of view it's definitely the first one (http://maven-jaxb2-plugin.java.net/).

This plugin has much more features than com.sun.tools.xjc.maven2:maven-jaxb-plugin, the development is active. Finally, I'm one of the authors :) and I'd say we keep in touch with JAXB developers and users and react to the latests features/requests.

And indeed, the plugin #2 is dead. And because I've always been happy with #1, I've never used plugin #3 so can't really say anything about it. Just in case, here is a working configuration for plugin #1:

<project>
  ...
  <build>
    <plugins>
      <plugin>
        <inherited>true</inherited>
        <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
        <configuration>
          <source>1.5</source>
          <target>1.5</target>
        </configuration>
      </plugin>
      <plugin>
        <groupId>org.jvnet.jaxb2.maven2</groupId>
        <artifactId>maven-jaxb2-plugin</artifactId>
        <executions>
          <execution>
            <goals>
              <goal>generate</goal>
            </goals>
          </execution>
        </executions>
      </plugin>
    </plugins>
  </build>
</project>

Solution 2

I have recently tried the three plug-ins mentioned above (included here as well):

the maven-jaxb2-plugin (http://maven-jaxb2-plugin.java.net/)
the maven-jaxb-plugin (https://jaxb.dev.java.net/jaxb-maven2-plugin/)
the jaxb2-maven-plugin (http://mojo.codehaus.org/jaxb2-maven-plugin/)

I ended up using a fourth option: The CXF XJC Maven Plugin http://cxf.apache.org/cxf-xjc-plugin.html

If I am missing something I would like to know, but the configuration seemed more straightforward for what I was trying to do and more easily allowed me to to deal with duplicate class generation within the same namespace -- similar to this question: Is there a way to deal with duplicate element definitions across multiple .xsd files in JAXB?.

I now have granular control over each incoming XSD and corresponding java package; here is a sample configuration close to the one I am using.

 <plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.cxf</groupId>
    <artifactId>cxf-xjc-plugin</artifactId>
    <version>2.3.0</version>
    <configuration>
        <extensions>
            <extension>org.apache.cxf.xjcplugins:cxf-xjc-dv:2.3.0</extension>
        </extensions>
    </configuration>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>generate-sources</id>
            <phase>generate-sources</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>xsdtojava</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <sourceRoot>${basedir}/target/generated-sources/src/main/java</sourceRoot>
                <xsdOptions>
                    <xsdOption>
                        <xsd>src/main/resources/schema/commands.xsd</xsd> <!--shares a common.xsd file causing the conflicts-->
                        <packagename>com.foo.bar.commands</packagename>
                    </xsdOption>
                    <xsdOption>
                        <xsd>src/main/resources/schema/responses.xsd</xsd>
                        <packagename>com.foo.bar.responses</packagename>
                    </xsdOption>
                </xsdOptions>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

Solution 3

I am the author of maven-jaxb2-plugin.

The maven-jaxb2-plugin currently uses JAXB 2.1. In the next versions we'll also provide JAXB 2.0 and JAXB 2.2 versions.

As for "which plugin is better" discussion, check the features, decide yourself. Let me know if you miss some functionality.

Solution 4

maven-jaxb2-plugin uses the JAXB reference implementation by Oracle/Sun
cxf and jaxb2-maven-plugin use Apache Xerces

Solution 5

On a slight tangent: there was a problem with use of maven-jaxb2-plugin with Eclipse Indigo that I posted here. A fix (extension) has recently become available.

This is not meant to disagree, at all, with the recommendation of maven-jaxb2-plugin over maven2-jaxb-plugin. I don't know, but I expect that maven2-jaxb-plugin has the same problem, probably unresolved.

View more solutions

98,472

Author by

cuh

Curious?

Updated on July 08, 2022

Comments

cuh almost 2 years
I have determined that two JAXB plugins for Maven 2 exist, with some different configurations.

The one is from Sun: http://jaxb.dev.java.net/jaxb-maven2-plugin/, the other from Mojohaus: http://mojohaus.org/jaxb2-maven-plugin/

Which of these two plugins can be recommended?

Thanks Matt. On my little research project, I found that there's quite another plugin comming from the sunners:
```
<groupId>com.sun.tools.xjc.maven2</groupId>  
<artifactId>maven-jaxb-plugin</artifactId>  
```
and that one:
```
<groupId>org.jvnet.jaxb2.maven2</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-jaxb2-plugin</artifactId>
```
and still the one from Codehouse.
cuh about 14 years

Yeah, and if it would be possible to dowload the org.jvnet.jaxb2.maven2 plugin i would compare them. Since the repo of java doesn't provide the plugin it's out of the game, although the configuration-syntax seemed a little more convenient.
cuh about 14 years

Thx for the config. In the end i use the codehouse plugin, which gives me the same capabilities for my needs. Only the syntax differs as far as i have seen.
rcl almost 14 years

What about ws.apache.org/jaxme/mp which is mentioned directly on Maven's site?
Devanshu Mevada almost 14 years

@rcl: Can't say much about it but since it hasn't been updated for more than 4 years, I'm not sure I would use it. I'm just happy with the maven-jaxb2-plugin.
rds over 11 years

As for #1, the site hosting the documentation seems to be down today. confluence.highsource.org/display/MJIIP/User+Guide Is this project this active?
SGB about 11 years

Excellent suggestion. I just tried this and it worked like a charm- thank you.
user944849 about 11 years

Does anyone know if there is an Eclipse m2e connector for this? I did some googling and didn't find one. Hoping I just missed it because I like this option.
Jörg almost 11 years

Is it possible to generate schemas from classes using the maven-jaxb2-plugin? Or does the plugin only support xsd->Java?
lexicore almost 11 years

Currently it's xsd->java only.
Michael-O over 10 years

Just found this terrific answer. The first plugin seems to be the most completely. The rest isn't worth mentioning anymore.
FrVaBe about 10 years

Does the name 'maven-jaxb2-plugin' not violate the Maven plugin naming conventions or is it an official maven plugin? I don't mind the name but as it never was updated I thought the plugin would not be maintained anymore.
lexicore about 10 years

The plugin is quite old, it was incepted before this became an established convention. And jaxb2-maven-plugin was already taken back then. I think it is important to avoid name collision here. However nowadays plugin build even enforce these naming conventions so probably I'll have to migrate anyway.
FrVaBe about 10 years

Ah, I see. But org.jvnet.jaxb2.maven2:jaxb2-maven-plugin seems to be still available ;-) If you put still effort in the plugin it would be nice if it get a standard maven plugin documentation page. Or do you plan to drop support? Would be too bad because it works great. Thanks!
lexicore about 10 years

Well, yes, fully qualified name is available but people will always mistaken one plugin for another. Yes, I still support the project.
lanoxx almost 10 years

Is it possible in this plugin to specify NTLM credentials for schema urls?
lexicore almost 10 years

@lanoxx No, it is not. It is generally not recommended to compile schemas from URLs. Make local copies of schemas and use catalog files to rewrite links.
lexicore over 9 years

@Gregor maven-jaxb2-plugin is now hosted on GitHub. The documentation is in the wiki.
Vytenis Bivainis about 7 years

cxf-xjc-plugin has Eclipse connector as of 2017. But I do not see the problem of generating the code manually running maven and adding the source directory. In fact, my experience is that projects with generated classes (JAXB, XMLBeans) are better left closed and depended on in a binary form (jar). Then IDE works faster and there are no classpath issues (especially with XMLBeans).
alebu over 4 years

Looks like CXF XJC Maven Plugin only supports generating Java sources from schema, and is not capable to generate schema from Jaxb annotations.
Ian W almost 4 years

Pretty sure highsource[dot]org is no longer a legitimate site S/O users would want to visit.. May wish to revise the question/post/comments that reference it.
lexicore almost 4 years

Actual site: github.com/highsource/maven-jaxb2-plugin