Flexible marshalling with JAXB

Question

I\'m hoping to have a flexible way of marshalling objects. A verbose version for single objects and a less-verbose version for multiple object versions.

For example, co

Answer 1

Here comes another idea. Could be a bad idea but somewhat easy.

class Department {

    @XmlElement(required = true)
    public Link getSelf() {
        return self;
    }

    @XmlElement(required = false) // default
    public Link getParent() {
        if (verbose) {
            return parent;
        }
        return null;
    }

    @XmlElement(required = false) // default
    public String getSpecialty() {
        if (verbose) {
            return specialty;
        }
        return null;
    }

    @XmlTransient
    private boolean verbose;
}