JSON ignore namespace behavior in IgnoreContentJettisonWriter

[K Fung]

Hi all,

(not sure if this belongs in cxf-dev or cxf-user; given the level of code
detail here though, I'm thinking cxf-dev but feel free to redirect if
appropriate)

I'm looking to get some advice on how to fix a WebApplicationException /
IllegalStateException inside CXF's JSON code. I've got a solution in mind
for the CXF code but I'm not an expert in JSON so I'm wondering if my code
is incorrect or if this is truely a bug in CXF?

In my scenario, CXF is generating the following exception:

WARNING: WebApplicationException has been caught : Invalid JSON namespace:
http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance
 even when I have JSONProvider.setIgnoreNamespaces to be true.

The XML output is fine:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?>
 <Library xmlns:ns2="http://example.com/2011/book";>
<Book>
 <ns2:Book xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance";
xsi:nil="true"/>
 </Book>
</Library>

However, the JSON output fails with HTTP 500 due to the above
WebApplicationException.

Looking at the source code, I can see that it's failing in
IgnoreContentJettisonWriter:

public void writeAttribute(String prefix, String uri,
                           String local, String value) throws
XMLStreamException {
    if (!writeXsiType && "type".equals(local) && "xsi".equals(prefix)) {
        return;
    }
    super.writeAttribute(prefix, uri, local, value);

}

At the time of invocation for IgnoreContentJettisonWriter.writeAttribute, we
have the following values:

prefix = xsi
uri = http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance
 local = nil
value = true
writeXsiType = false

Given these values, we still call super.writeAttribute which then
consequently bombs with the IllegalStateException.

To me, the naive solution in this scenario would be the following: If
writeXsiType is set to false and local != "type", super.writeAttribute
should be called with a null value for uri. With this change, the JSON
output looks like the following:

{"Library":
{"Book":
{"Book":
 {"@nil":"true"}
}
}
 }

What are your thoughts? Would there be any issues with reading this JSON?

Regards,
kl

Appendix A: JAXB Classes

@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
@XmlType(name = "", propOrder = {"book"})
@XmlRootElement(name = "Library")
public class Library {

    @XmlElement(name = "Book", required = true)
    protected List<Book> book;

    public List<Book> getBook() {
        if (this.book == null) {
            this.book = new ArrayList<Book>();
        }
        return this.book;
    }

    public void setBook(List<Book> l) {
        this.book = l;
    }

}

@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
@XmlType(name="Book", propOrder={"book"})
public class Book
{

  @XmlElement(name="Book", namespace="http://example.com/2011/book";,
required=true, nillable=true)
  protected String book;

  public String getBook()
  {
    return this.book;
  }

  public void setBook(String value)
  {
    this.book = value;
  }
}

Appendix B: Invocation Example

    @GET
    @Path("book")
    public Library getBook() throws JAXBException {

        final Book john = new Book();
        john.setBook(null);

        Library lib = new Library();
        List<Book> l = new ArrayList<Book>(1);
        l.add(john);
        docs.setBook(l);

        return lib;
    }