Mixed value and element with SimpleXML/Simple framework

Question

I have the following XML to parse (this is only part of the National Digital Forecast Database):

<production-center>
    Meteorological Development Laboratory
    <sub-center>Product Generation Branch</sub-center>
</production-center>

and I created the following class to use this:

@Element
public class ProductionCenter {
    @Element(name = "sub-center")
    public String subCenter;

    @Text(required = false)
    public String value;
}

However this does not work, because it's expecting only Text as the value, and there's an additional element there.

How can I get Simple Framework to be happy with this XML structure? I cannot change the XML, so making it more 'valid' is not an option.

-- I've tried the following too --

@Element
public class ProductionCenter {
    @Text
    @ElementListUnion({
        @ElementList(entry="sub-center", type=String.class, inline=true),
    })
    public List<Object> values;
}

Answer 1

You cannot use both @Text and @ElementListUnion of type String.class. Once I tried without @Text Simple Framework was much happier.