"adrian(a)jboss.org" wrote : "alex.loubyansky(a)jboss.com" wrote : adrian wrote : Maybe there should be some kind of @JBossXmlValue | | | annotation where we can say we want the empty string even for complex types. | | | | This alone doesn't make sense to me. I.e. the property could always be initialized to an empty string and if there was actual data it would override it. | | | | You could have the case (not this one) where you have a mixed | complex type and you want to know the value is "" | But with that annotation the value always will be "" (unless of course there is actual text data), won't it? adrian wrote : anonymous wrote : | | adrian wrote : I'd suggest an element on the annotation where you say you don't want | | | the empty string data if there are child xml elements? | | | | Yes, I was thinking you needed this one. | | | | An alternative could be a way to specify the default value (which in your case would be an empty string) in case there is no content. | | | | Except in this case, we don't to apply the default when there are other elements. | Yes, that's what I meant. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4172579#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...