fields with @XmlElement not unmarshalled correctly

[klausg]

When a bean has @XmlElement(name = "someName") the name is correctly used when marshaling the bean to to XML, but the field is not read correctly when unmarshaled.

Simple bean

package com.example;

import javax.xml.bind.annotation.*;

@XmlRootElement()
@XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
public class MyData {

    @XmlElement(name = "someName") // this doesn't unmarshal correctly
    public String aString;

    public MyData() {
    }

    public MyData(String aString) {
        this.aString = aString;
    }
} 

Simple controller

package com.example;

import org.springframework.stereotype.*;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.*;

@Controller
public class TestController {

    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    // Instance fields
    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    private MyData _data = new MyData("test");

    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    // Instance methods
    // -----------------------------------------------------------------
    @RequestMapping(value = "/get", method = RequestMethod.GET)
    @ResponseBody
    public MyData get() {
        return _data;
    }


    @RequestMapping(value = "/post", method = RequestMethod.POST)
    @ResponseBody
    public MyData updateComplex(@RequestBody MyData c) {

        _data = c;    // c.aString is always null :(
        return _data;
    }
} 

DispatchServlet is mapped in web.xml, and the servlets application context looks like this

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
       xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
       xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
       xmlns:util="http://www.springframework.org/schema/util"
       xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/context http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context.xsd http://www.springframework.org/schema/util http://www.springframework.org/schema/util/spring-util-2.0.xsd">


    <context:component-scan base-package="com.example"/>

    <!-- This configures a chain of converters used for the @PathVariable, @RequestBody and other
    annotations that controls how data is converted to method arguments in MVC Controller methods -->
    <bean class="org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.annotation.AnnotationMethodHandlerAdapter">
        <property name="messageConverters">
          <util:list id="beanList">
              <ref bean="stringHttpMessageConverter"/>
              <ref bean="JaxbMessageConverter"/>
          </util:list>
        </property>
    </bean>

    <bean id="stringHttpMessageConverter" class="org.springframework.http.converter.StringHttpMessageConverter"/>

    <bean id="JaxbMessageConverter" class="org.springframework.http.converter.xml.MarshallingHttpMessageConverter">
       <property name="marshaller" ref="jaxbMarshaller"/>
       <property name="unmarshaller" ref="jaxbMarshaller"/>
    </bean>

    <bean id="jaxbMarshaller" class="org.springframework.oxm.jaxb.Jaxb2Marshaller">
        <property name="classesToBeBound">
            <list>
                <value>com.example.MyData</value>
            </list>
        </property>
    </bean>
</beans>

Everything works great if MyData's aString field is not annotated with @XmlElement, MyData objects are correctly marshaled and unmarshaled from java to XML in /get and from XML to java in /post.

Does anyone know why adding @XmlElement breaks the marshaling, or do am I missing some configuration ?