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Originally published at Internet.comJava applications that deal with XML, often must resort to tedious parsing and mapping code. Data binding is gradually emerging as an effective mechanism for incorporating XML data into Java applications. The plus side to this approach is that XML data will look like Java objects which makes it easier for the Java programmer to manipulate and interact with that data. Such mapping are usually a two-way street in that they can also take a Java object and serialize it into XML. The negative side would be performance (by introducing some overhead) and the inherent incompatibility that exists among the different binding mechanism. Jato, is an open-source effort focusing on XML/Java conversion
Jato, is an open-source effort focusing on XML/Java conversion (http://www.krumel.com/jato ). Jato encapsulates the mapping between XML and Java objects into an XML file (using Jato-specific tags). This allows the developer to focus strictly on the mapping without paying too much attention to implementation. As the author of Jato observes, conversion implementations often have similar patterns. By capturing the mapping in a single place and then allowing Jato handle the parsing, conversion, and generation, you save many lines of code...
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