JAXB

JAXB stands for Java Architecture for XML Binding. It is a Java API that provides a convenient framework for mapping between XML documents and Java objects. JAXB enables developers to define how Java classes correspond to XML schemas and to perform marshalling (converting Java objects to XML) and unmarshalling (converting XML to Java objects).

The API supports schema-derived binding, Java-to-XML binding, and XML-to-Java binding, along with a runtime library to perform the actual marshalling and unmarshalling. A typical workflow involves generating Java classes from an XML Schema using the binding compiler, known as xjc, and then using a JAXBContext to create a Marshaller or Unmarshaller to serialize or parse XML. JAXB also emphasizes annotation-based binding, allowing metadata to be placed directly on Java classes to control the mapping. Common annotations include @XmlRootElement to designate the root element, @XmlType and @XmlAccessorType to control how fields or properties are bound, and @XmlElement and @XmlAttribute to map members to XML content and attributes.

Historical context and current status: JAXB was part of the Java SE platform up to Java 8 and Java EE. It was deprecated in Java 9 and removed from the standard JDK in Java 11. The technology continues in Jakarta EE as Jakarta XML Bind (jakarta.xml.bind), under the Eclipse Foundation, with the API and runtime namespaces migrated from javax.xml.bind to jakarta.xml.bind. Developers using newer runtimes typically include the JAXB API and implementation from the Jakarta namespace as dependencies.