Hi, There is a difference between an empty String and null.
if a property was set to null, my xml representation showed nothing at all (no property name or value). This isn't acceptable
Why don't you set it to an empty String?
Well, I agree that having an empty string value and being absent (and having a null value) are all completely different things. However, I do see removal of the property itself as a side effect of setting the property to null.
Removing the property by setting it to null is not a 'side effect'. It is the only effect.
Me too. Making it mandatory even better :-)
That would be a solution. Setting it to null could just throw a NullPointerException. Thomas
