1 /*
   2  * Copyright (c) 2006, 2011, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
   3  * DO NOT ALTER OR REMOVE COPYRIGHT NOTICES OR THIS FILE HEADER.
   4  *
   5  * This code is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
   6  * under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 2 only, as
   7  * published by the Free Software Foundation.  Oracle designates this
   8  * particular file as subject to the "Classpath" exception as provided
   9  * by Oracle in the LICENSE file that accompanied this code.
  10  *
  11  * This code is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
  12  * ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
  13  * FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License
  14  * version 2 for more details (a copy is included in the LICENSE file that
  15  * accompanied this code).
  16  *
  17  * You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License version
  18  * 2 along with this work; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation,
  19  * Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.
  20  *
  21  * Please contact Oracle, 500 Oracle Parkway, Redwood Shores, CA 94065 USA
  22  * or visit www.oracle.com if you need additional information or have any
  23  * questions.
  24  */
  25 
  26 package javax.xml.bind.annotation;
  27 
  28 import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
  29 import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
  30 import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
  31 import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;
  32 import java.lang.annotation.Target;
  33 
  34 /**
  35  * Instructs JAXB to also bind other classes when binding this class.
  36  *
  37  * <p>
  38  * Java makes it impractical/impossible to list all sub-classes of
  39  * a given class. This often gets in a way of JAXB users, as it JAXB
  40  * cannot automatically list up the classes that need to be known
  41  * to {@link JAXBContext}.
  42  *
  43  * <p>
  44  * For example, with the following class definitions:
  45  *
  46  * <pre>
  47  * class Animal {}
  48  * class Dog extends Animal {}
  49  * class Cat extends Animal {}
  50  * </pre>
  51  *
  52  * <p>
  53  * The user would be required to create {@link JAXBContext} as
  54  * <tt>JAXBContext.newInstance(Dog.class,Cat.class)</tt>
  55  * (<tt>Animal</tt> will be automatically picked up since <tt>Dog</tt>
  56  * and <tt>Cat</tt> refers to it.)
  57  *
  58  * <p>
  59  * {@link XmlSeeAlso} annotation would allow you to write:
  60  * <pre>
  61  * &#64;XmlSeeAlso({Dog.class,Cat.class})
  62  * class Animal {}
  63  * class Dog extends Animal {}
  64  * class Cat extends Animal {}
  65  * </pre>
  66  *
  67  * <p>
  68  * This would allow you to do <tt>JAXBContext.newInstance(Animal.class)</tt>.
  69  * By the help of this annotation, JAXB implementations will be able to
  70  * correctly bind <tt>Dog</tt> and <tt>Cat</tt>.
  71  *
  72  * @author Kohsuke Kawaguchi
  73  * @since JAXB2.1
  74  */
  75 @Target({ElementType.TYPE})
  76 @Retention(RUNTIME)
  77 public @interface XmlSeeAlso {
  78     Class[] value();
  79 }