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I used XStream many years ago, but I see that the libraries is not updated since 2008 (latest news). Is there now a more modern and up to dates Java XML serialization library?

Inhumane answered 28/5, 2011 at 1:11 Comment(4)

As of August 2011, XStream has just had it's first major update in 3 years. This pace of development seems appropriate since as other answers have explained, XStream is a mature project. – Balbur 9/4, 2013 at 22:12

And indeed, the updates continue: "February 8, 2014 XStream 1.4.7 released". – Parisi 29/1, 2015 at 22:32

You can now get XStream from Github, and the documentation is published on github.io. At this point in time the "theory" that the library is not being maintained / updated is thoroughly debunked. – Parisi 25/6, 2019 at 13:26

2021 and it still works for me. Many use cases. I am not sure how fast it is though. – Ecbolic 19/7, 2021 at 18:20

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In order of preference, relevancy and activity:

JAXB

Visit the JAXB project's site to check out the tutorial and guide. Have also a look at the original JAXB architecture whitepaper.

The JAXB projet listed above is the reference implementation of the API, and is packaged in by the GlassFish Application Server.

EclipseLink's MOXy

Visit the EclipseLink project's site and read this introductory article to EclipseLink on InfoQ, and see Blaise Doughan's answer about MOXy.

EclipseLink originated from Oracle's TopLink and is now open source, managed by the Eclipse Foundation, and used in a number of Eclipse-based products.

XStream

_{Yes, XStream, because it's actually been updated in 2011 with a major update and 2 service releases since you asked, so it seems well-maintained and a pretty good contender used by mature projects. Don't forget to check what's new in version 1.4.x.}

Visit the XStream project's site and its tutorial to compare.

XmlBeans

Visit the XmlBeans project's site.

XmlBeans is a well-tested project that has been around for a while.

JiBX

Visit the JiBX project's site, follow the tutorial and guide.

JiBX might be a simpler alternative if you don't like the complexity of XmlBeans or even JAXB.

Dhaulagiri answered 28/5, 2011 at 1:20 Comment(4)

+1 for JAXB. XMLBeans on the other hand has not released since July 2008, which puts it in a similar position to XStream as far as the OP is concerned: xmlbeans.apache.org/sourceAndBinaries/index.html – Fallingout 28/5, 2011 at 10:58

@Blaise: True, I know. But I've had good experiences with it. Plus, as mentioned in another answer by Steven C., the fact that it's outdated doesn't always mean it's bad. Maybe it means it's good enough to not need a new release, though I would usually be suspicious about it. – Dhaulagiri 28/5, 2011 at 11:2

@Blaise: but actually, I realized I forgot EclipseLink, which I also like, and is used in a lot of Eclipse-based solutions (and others) and is actively developed. So I'd rate it above XmlBeans as well. – Dhaulagiri 28/5, 2011 at 11:10

@Blaise: whoops, hadn't even noticed your answer, actually. I'm crediting you directly then. – Dhaulagiri 28/5, 2011 at 11:12

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The fact that something hasn't been updated¹ for 3 years doesn't mean that it is out of date. It might simply mean that there has been no need to update it. If there is no need to change a project, why change it?

Another possible explanation for the apparent lack of "progress" is that changing library APIs tends to be disruptive to projects that depend on them. This is particularly problematic for projects that combine lots of third-party components and libraries into one Java application.

Looking for alternatives to a library can be a good idea, especially if you need features that the existing library doesn't provide. But simply looking for an alternative because the library hasn't been updated recently is not wise. If XStream does what you need, stick with it. Newer doesn't necessarily mean better.

^{1 - ... when the question was originally asked.}

UPDATE - 2023

XStream has been receiving updates with a new release at least once a year since 2011. Refer to the Changes page for details, and look at the activity on the Github repository for the project. As of now, the theory that XStream is not being maintained is (IMO) thoroughly debunked.

Parisi answered 28/5, 2011 at 1:20 Comment(0)

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Note: I'm the EclipseLink JAXB (MOXy) lead, and a member of the JAXB (JSR-222) expert group.

You are correct in considering a libraries release frequency when making a software choice. There are many reasons for a new product release:

Customer Requests - No matter how good your library is, your user base will have improvement suggestions and feature requests.
Industry Developments - Modular deployment is hot topic right now, over the past few years changes had to be made to EclipseLink to make it compatible with OSGi.
New Java Versions - Java SE 7 will be released soon, while this does not necessitate a release we did need to make some tweaks in our upcoming release to ensure we were compatible. Also over time more features will be added to leverage new Java aspects (EclipseLink requires a minimum of Java SE 5).

Another important aspect of evaluating any open source project is the number of active committers. Sites like ohloh.net are useful for that:

http://www.ohloh.net/p/3459

JAXB (JSR-222)

JAXB is more than an implementation, it is a standard that is developed through the Java Community Process (JCP). There have been participants from such object-to-XML libraries as XML Beans (BEA), EMF (IBM), TopLink (Oracle), etc. Because JAXB is part of Java EE it is available in every application server: WebLogic, GlassFish, WebSphere, JBoss, etc.

JAXB Offers:

100% schema coverage
Multiple implementations: Metro, EclipseLink MOXy, Apache JaxMe, etc
Included in Java SE 6, compatible with JDK 1.5
Ability to start from XML schema or Java classes
Various extension mechanisms including XmlAdapter - Example
Option to preserve XML infoset via Binder - Example
Binding layer for JAX-WS (Web Services)
Binding layer for JAX-RS (Rest) - Example
Compatible with JSON (when used with libraries such as Jettison) - Example

EclipseLink JAXB (MOXy)

MOXy is a JAXB implementation that offers many useful extensions, including:

True Object to XML Mapping by Leveraging XPath

XPath based mapping allows you to start with both Java classes and an XML schema and map the two together.

Mapping File for Handling 3rd Party Classes

In the current JAXB spec the metadata is supplied via annotations. This can be problematic to use with 3rd party classes that cannot be modified. This is why MOXy offers a way to specify the mappings via XML:

Extensions for Mapping JPA Entities

Often times you need to do more with your Java objects then just map then to XML. You may also need to persist them to a database. This means your object model may have additional constraints on it that you need to account for. MOXy offers a number of extensions for this kind of use case:

Comparisons

Below are a couple comparisons I have done comparing JAXB to XStream and Simple:

Fallingout answered 28/5, 2011 at 10:52 Comment(1)

No issues with XStream here, plenty with JAXB and Hessian. JAXB is not a able to deserialize like XStream is. See #68455107 – Ecbolic 20/7, 2021 at 16:55

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XStream is pretty good and it does it's job well. Even for recent projects, I prefer to use XStream for use cases where it fits because it's easy to use, lightweight, and performs really well.

If you are looking at some serious bean-binding work, take a look at Simple Framework. It's also a good tool. This helped me out in one project where I needed to do some serious custom mapping work with annotations. http://simple.sourceforge.net/

Cauterize answered 28/5, 2011 at 5:46 Comment(0)

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XStream 1.4.6 was released in Dec 2013, with Java 8 improvements, so the library HAS been updated since 2008.

Fiji answered 22/1, 2014 at 14:46 Comment(0)

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Underscore-java can read and write xml files. I am the maintainer of the project. Java 11+ is supported.

Lindley answered 24/11, 2019 at 17:57 Comment(0)

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An alternative is EasyML (http://github.com/cordisvictor/easyml-lib/). Supports Java 8, 11, 17, 21+.

Faster than XStream.

XStream is also being maintained on GitHub.

Halima answered 27/3 at 14:33 Comment(0)

JAXB

EclipseLink's MOXy

XStream

XmlBeans

JiBX

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