jaxws/src/share/classes/javax/xml/bind/annotation/XmlList.java

/*
 * Copyright 2005-2006 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All Rights Reserved.
 * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
 *
 * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
 * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
 * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Sun designates this
 * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
 * by Sun in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
 *
 * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
 * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
 * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
 * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
 * accompanied this code).
 *
 * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
 * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
 * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
 *
 * Please contact Sun Microsystems, Inc., 4150 Network Circle, Santa Clara,
 * CA 95054 USA or visit www.sun.com if you need additional information or
 * have any questions.
 */
package javax.xml.bind.annotation;

import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;
import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.FIELD;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.METHOD;
import static java.lang.annotation.ElementType.PARAMETER;

/**
 * Used to map a property to a list simple type.
 *
 * <p><b>Usage</b> </p>
 * <p>
 * The <tt>@XmlList</tt> annotation can be used with the
 * following program elements:
 * <ul>
 *   <li> JavaBean property </li>
 *   <li> field </li>
 * </ul>
 *
 * <p>
 * When a collection property is annotated just with @XmlElement,
 * each item in the collection will be wrapped by an element.
 * For example,
 *
 * <pre>
 * &#64;XmlRootElement
 * class Foo {
 *     &#64;XmlElement
 *     List&lt;String> data;
 * }
 * </pre>
 *
 * would produce XML like this:
 *
 * <pre><xmp>
 * <foo>
 *   <data>abc</data>
 *   <data>def</data>
 * </foo>
 * </xmp></pre>
 *
 * &#64;XmlList annotation, on the other hand, allows multiple values to be
 * represented as whitespace-separated tokens in a single element. For example,
 *
 * <pre>
 * &#64;XmlRootElement
 * class Foo {
 *     &#64;XmlElement
 *     &#64;XmlList
 *     List&lt;String> data;
 * }
 * </pre>
 *
 * the above code will produce XML like this:
 *
 * <pre><xmp>
 * <foo>
 *   <data>abc def</data>
 * </foo>
 * </xmp></pre>
 *
 * <p>This annotation can be used with the following annotations:
 *        {@link XmlElement},
 *        {@link XmlAttribute},
 *        {@link XmlValue},
 *        {@link XmlIDREF}.
 *  <ul>
 *    <li> The use of <tt>@XmlList</tt> with {@link XmlValue} while
 *         allowed, is redundant since  {@link XmlList} maps a
 *         collection type to a simple schema type that derives by
 *         list just as {@link XmlValue} would. </li>
 *
 *    <li> The use of <tt>@XmlList</tt> with {@link XmlAttribute} while
 *         allowed, is redundant since  {@link XmlList} maps a
 *         collection type to a simple schema type that derives by
 *         list just as {@link XmlAttribute} would. </li>
 *  </ul>
 *
 * @author <ul><li>Kohsuke Kawaguchi, Sun Microsystems, Inc.</li><li>Sekhar Vajjhala, Sun Microsystems, Inc.</li></ul>
 * @since JAXB2.0
 */
@Retention(RUNTIME) @Target({FIELD,METHOD,PARAMETER})
public @interface XmlList {
}