This is a simple converter for XStream that puts the text node of the tag into the specified field and redirects other processing to ReflectionConverter. Specially convenient for cases where the tags can have both text and elements. Will handle elements such as <a>text</a>, <a><b>other contents</b>some text</a> and <a><b>some contents</b><c>some…

ValueConverter.java

package eu.activelogic.xml.xstream.converters;

import java.lang.reflect.Field;

import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;

import com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.ConversionException;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.Converter;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.ConverterLookup;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.MarshallingContext;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.UnmarshallingContext;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.ReflectionConverter;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.converters.reflection.ReflectionProvider;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.io.HierarchicalStreamReader;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.io.HierarchicalStreamWriter;
import com.thoughtworks.xstream.mapper.Mapper;

/**
 * This is a simple converter for XSTream that puts the text node of the tag
 * into the specified field and redirects other processing to
 * {@link ReflectionConverter}
 * 
 * 
 * @author Aleksandr Panzin
 * 
 */
public class ValueConverter implements Converter {

  private final Class<?> type;
	private final String fieldName;
	private final Class<?> valueDefinedIn;
	private final Mapper mapper;
	private final ReflectionProvider reflectionProvider;

	public ValueConverter(final Class<?> type, final Mapper mapper,
			final ReflectionProvider reflectionProvider,
			final ConverterLookup lookup, final String valueFieldName) {
		this(type, mapper, reflectionProvider, lookup, valueFieldName, type);
	}

	public ValueConverter(final Class<?> type, final Mapper mapper,
			final ReflectionProvider reflectionProvider,
			final ConverterLookup lookup, final String valueFieldName,
			final Class<?> valueDefinedIn) {
		super();
		this.type = type;
		this.fieldName = valueFieldName;
		this.valueDefinedIn = valueDefinedIn;
		this.mapper = mapper;
		this.reflectionProvider = reflectionProvider;

		try {
			Field f = valueDefinedIn.getDeclaredField(fieldName);
			if (!f.getType().equals(String.class))
				throw new IllegalStateException("The field " + fieldName
						+ " has to be of type String");
		} catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
			throw new IllegalStateException("Field " + fieldName
					+ " not found on " + valueDefinedIn, e);
		} catch (Exception e) {
			throw new IllegalStateException(
					"Could not initialize ValueConverter", e);
		}

	}

	@Override
	public boolean canConvert(Class type) {
		return this.type.equals(type);
	}

	@Override
	public void marshal(Object source, HierarchicalStreamWriter writer,
			MarshallingContext context) {
		try {
			Field f = valueDefinedIn.getDeclaredField(fieldName);
			f.setAccessible(true);
			Object value = f.get(source);
			if (value != null && StringUtils.isNotBlank(value.toString())) {
				writer.setValue(value.toString());
			}
		} catch (Exception e) {
			throw new ConversionException("Could not convert field: "
					+ fieldName, e);
		}
		context.convertAnother(source, new ReflectionConverter(this.mapper,
				this.reflectionProvider));
	}

	@Override
	public Object unmarshal(HierarchicalStreamReader reader,
			UnmarshallingContext context) {
		Object o = context.convertAnother(context.currentObject(), context
				.getRequiredType(), new ReflectionConverter(this.mapper,
				this.reflectionProvider));

		try {
			Field f = valueDefinedIn.getDeclaredField(fieldName);
			f.setAccessible(true);
			String value = reader.getValue();
			if (StringUtils.isNotBlank(value)) {
				f.set(o, value);
			}
		} catch (Exception e) {
			throw new ConversionException("Could not convert field: "
					+ fieldName, e);
		}

		return o;
	}

}