While the Java programming language provides us a means to write portable code, XML can be used to define portable data. We use XML extensively to format data in SOA-based architectures. Moreover, today all new generation platforms, frameworks, and even legacy platforms such as COBOL and Mainframes exhibit support for XML formatted data.

ServiceMix is all about SOI and hence it is also concerned with portable data. Naturally, the format of data inside the NMR is XML. Another aspect is that ServiceMix is a Java-based JBI framework. Hence, the developers need to write code in Java, whether they are SEs or BCs. It is in this context that the relationship between Java and XML in the ServiceMix context needs attention.

This chapter will provide a brief introduction to Java XML binding and to the concepts and technologies that it employs.

So we will cover the following in this chapter: