package javax.xml.bind.annotation;
import javax.xml.bind.JAXBContext;
import java.lang.annotation.ElementType;
import java.lang.annotation.Retention;
import static java.lang.annotation.RetentionPolicy.RUNTIME;
import java.lang.annotation.Target;
/**
* Instructs JAXB to also bind other classes when binding this class.
*
* <p>
* Java makes it impractical/impossible to list all sub-classes of
* a given class. This often gets in a way of JAXB users, as it JAXB
* cannot automatically list up the classes that need to be known
* to {@link JAXBContext}.
*
* <p>
* For example, with the following class definitions:
*
* <pre>
* class Animal {}
* class Dog extends Animal {}
* class Cat extends Animal {}
* </pre>
*
* <p>
* The user would be required to create {@link JAXBContext} as
* <tt>JAXBContext.newInstance(Dog.class,Cat.class)</tt>
* (<tt>Animal</tt> will be automatically picked up since <tt>Dog</tt>
* and <tt>Cat</tt> refers to it.)
*
* <p>
* {@link XmlSeeAlso} annotation would allow you to write:
* <pre>
* @XmlSeeAlso({Dog.class,Cat.class})
* class Animal {}
* class Dog extends Animal {}
* class Cat extends Animal {}
* </pre>
*
* <p>
* This would allow you to do <tt>JAXBContext.newInstance(Animal.class)</tt>.
* By the help of this annotation, JAXB implementations will be able to
* correctly bind <tt>Dog</tt> and <tt>Cat</tt>.
*
* @author Kohsuke Kawaguchi
* @since JAXB2.1
*/
@Target({ElementType.TYPE})
@Retention(RUNTIME)
public @interface XmlSeeAlso {
Class[] value();
}
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