This can be done without modifying the generated JAXB code using standard SOAPMessage class. I wrote about this here and here
It’s a little fiddly but works correctly.
Marshalling
Farm farm = new Farm();
farm.getHorse().add(new Horse());
farm.getHorse().get(0).setName("glue factory");
farm.getHorse().get(0).setHeight(BigInteger.valueOf(123));
Document document = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance().newDocumentBuilder().newDocument();
Marshaller marshaller = JAXBContext.newInstance(Farm.class).createMarshaller();
marshaller.marshal(farm, document);
SOAPMessage soapMessage = MessageFactory.newInstance().createMessage();
soapMessage.getSOAPBody().addDocument(document);
ByteArrayOutputStream outputStream = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
soapMessage.writeTo(outputStream);
String output = new String(outputStream.toByteArray());
Unmarshalling
String example =
"<soapenv:Envelope xmlns:soapenv=\"http://schemas.xmlsoap.org/soap/envelope/\"><soapenv:Header /><soapenv:Body><ns2:farm xmlns:ns2=\"http://adamish.com/example/farm\"><horse height=\"123\" name=\"glue factory\"/></ns2:farm></soapenv:Body></soapenv:Envelope>";
SOAPMessage message = MessageFactory.newInstance().createMessage(null,
new ByteArrayInputStream(example.getBytes()));
Unmarshaller unmarshaller = JAXBContext.newInstance(Farm.class).createUnmarshaller();
Farm farm = (Farm)unmarshaller.unmarshal(message.getSOAPBody().extractContentAsDocument());