javax.xml.bind.UnmarshalException: unexpected element. Expected elements are (none)

Question

I am getting this error, while unmarshalling a string. I have created Java files using JAXB.

JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(DocumentType.class);
Unmarshaller unmarshaller = jaxbContext.createUnmarshaller();
// Input string posted below
DocumentType dType = (DocumentType) unmarshaller.unmarshal(new StringReader("input string"));

Stack trace:

Exception in thread "main" javax.xml.bind.UnmarshalException: unexpected element (uri:"http://ocrsdk.com/schema/recognizedBusinessCard-1.0.xsd", local:"document"). Expected elements are (none)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallingContext.handleEvent(UnmarshallingContext.java:647)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.Loader.reportError(Loader.java:243)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.Loader.reportError(Loader.java:238)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.Loader.reportUnexpectedChildElement(Loader.java:105)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallingContext$DefaultRootLoader.childElement(UnmarshallingContext.java:1048)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallingContext._startElement(UnmarshallingContext.java:483)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallingContext.startElement(UnmarshallingContext.java:465)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.SAXConnector.startElement(SAXConnector.java:135)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.startElement(AbstractSAXParser.java:506)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.scanStartElement(XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.java:376)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl$NSContentDriver.scanRootElementHook(XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.java:602)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDriver.next(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:3065)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl$PrologDriver.next(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:881)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl.next(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:607)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.next(XMLNSDocumentScannerImpl.java:116)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:489)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:835)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:764)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:123)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.AbstractSAXParser.parse(AbstractSAXParser.java:1210)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.SAXParserImpl$JAXPSAXParser.parse(SAXParserImpl.java:568)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal0(UnmarshallerImpl.java:203)
    at com.sun.xml.internal.bind.v2.runtime.unmarshaller.UnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(UnmarshallerImpl.java:175)
    at javax.xml.bind.helpers.AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.java:157)
    at javax.xml.bind.helpers.AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.unmarshal(AbstractUnmarshallerImpl.java:214)
    at JaxbTest.main(JaxbTest.java:19)

XSD:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xs:schema targetNamespace="http://ocrsdk.com/schema/recognizedBusinessCard-1.0.xsd"
    xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema" xmlns:tns="http://ocrsdk.com/schema/recognizedBusinessCard-1.0.xsd"
    elementFormDefault="qualified">

    <xs:element name="document" type="tns:documentType"></xs:element>

    <xs:complexType name="documentType">
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element name="businessCard" type="tns:businessCardType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"></xs:element>
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="businessCardType">
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element name="field" type="tns:fieldType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"></xs:element>
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="fieldType">
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element name="value" type="xs:string" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1">
            </xs:element>
            <xs:element name="characters" type="tns:charactersType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"></xs:element>
            <xs:element name="fieldComponents" type="tns:fieldComponentsType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"></xs:element>
        </xs:sequence>
        <xs:attribute name="type" type="tns:typeType"></xs:attribute>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:simpleType name="typeType">
        <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
            <xs:enumeration value="Name"></xs:enumeration>
            <xs:enumeration value="Phone"></xs:enumeration>
            <xs:enumeration value="Mobile"></xs:enumeration>
            <xs:enumeration value="Fax"></xs:enumeration>
            <xs:enumeration value="Company"></xs:enumeration>
            <xs:enumeration value="Job"></xs:enumeration>
            <xs:enumeration value="Address"></xs:enumeration>
            <xs:enumeration value="Email"></xs:enumeration>
            <xs:enumeration value="Web"></xs:enumeration>
            <xs:enumeration value="Text"></xs:enumeration>
        </xs:restriction>
    </xs:simpleType>

    <xs:complexType name="charactersType">
        <xs:sequence>
            <xs:element name="char" type="tns:charType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"></xs:element>
        </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="charType">
        <xs:simpleContent>
            <xs:extension base="xs:string">
                <xs:attribute name="suspicious" type="xs:boolean" use="optional"></xs:attribute>
            </xs:extension>
        </xs:simpleContent>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:complexType name="fieldComponentsType">
      <xs:sequence>
        <xs:element name="fieldComponent" type="tns:fieldComponentType" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"></xs:element>
      </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>


    <xs:complexType name="fieldComponentType">
      <xs:sequence>
        <xs:element name="value" type="xs:string" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1">
        </xs:element>
      </xs:sequence>
      <xs:attribute name="type" type="tns:fieldComponentTypeType"></xs:attribute>
    </xs:complexType>

    <xs:simpleType name="fieldComponentTypeType">
      <xs:restriction base="xs:string">
        <xs:enumeration value="FirstName"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="MiddleName"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="LastName"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="ExtraName"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="PhonePrefix"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="PhoneCountryCode"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="PhoneCode"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="PhoneBody"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="PhoneExtension"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="ZipCode"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="Country"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="City"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="StreetAddress"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="JobPosition"></xs:enumeration>
        <xs:enumeration value="JobDepartment"></xs:enumeration>
      </xs:restriction>
    </xs:simpleType>

</xs:schema>

Input string:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" standalone="yes"?>
<document xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://ocrsdk.com/schema/recognizedBusinessCard-1.0.xsd http://ocrsdk.com/schema/recognizedBusinessCard-1.0.xsd" xmlns="http://ocrsdk.com/schema/recognizedBusinessCard-1.0.xsd">
<businessCard>
<field type="Phone">
  <value>783-37-00</value>
</field>
<field type="Phone">
  <value>783-37-01</value>
</field>
<field type="Fax">
  <value>783-26-63</value>
</field>
<field type="Email">
  <value>john_sm@abbyy.com</value>
</field>
<field type="Web">
  <value>www.abbyy.com</value>
</field>
<field type="Address">
  <value>Otradnaya str., 2b, bld.6, 127273, Moscow, Russia</value>
</field>
<field type="Name">
  <value>John Smith</value>
</field>
<field type="Company">
  <value>ABBYY Headquarters</value>
</field>
<field type="Job">
  <value>Product Analyst</value>
</field>
<field type="Text">
  <value>ABBYY ABBYY Headquarters John Smith Product Analyst ABBYY Headquarters Otradnaya str., 2b, bld.6, 127273, Moscow, Russia Tel: 783-37-00 Fax: 783-26-63 john_sm@abbyy.com www.abbyy.com </value>
</field>
</businessCard>
</document>

Answer 1

When you generate a JAXB model from an XML Schema, global elements that correspond to named complex types will have that metadata captured as an @XmlElementDecl annotation on a create method in the ObjectFactory class. Since you are creating the JAXBContext on just the DocumentType class this metadata isn't being processed. If you generated your JAXB model from an XML Schema then you should create the JAXBContext on the generated package name or ObjectFactory class to ensure all the necessary metadata is processed.

Example solution:

JAXBContext jaxbContext = JAXBContext.newInstance(my.generatedschema.dir.ObjectFactory.class);
DocumentType documentType = ((JAXBElement<DocumentType>) jaxbContext.createUnmarshaller().unmarshal(inputStream)).getValue();

Answer 2

Alternatively if you want to persist in using the DocumentType class. Then you could just add the following annotation on top of your DocumentType class.

    @XmlRootElement(name="document")

Note: the String value "document" refers to the name of the root tag of the xml message.

Answer 3

One of the reasons for this error is the use of the jaxb implementation from the jdk. I am not sure why such a problem can appear in pretty simple xml parsing situations. You may use the latest version of the jaxb library from a public maven repository:

http://mvnrepository.com

<dependency>
    <groupId>javax.xml.bind</groupId>
    <artifactId>jaxb-api</artifactId>
    <version>2.2.12</version>
</dependency>

Answer 4

In our case we were getting UnmarshalException because a wrong Java package was specified in the following. The issue was resolved once the right package was in place:

@Bean
public Unmarshaller tmsUnmarshaller() {
    final Jaxb2Marshaller jaxb2Marshaller = new Jaxb2Marshaller();
    jaxb2Marshaller
            .setPackagesToScan("java.package.to.generated.java.classes.for.xsd");
    return jaxb2Marshaller;
}