The XML Beans API is designed to work with the XML Beans schema compiler. The schema compiler produces XML Bean classes that extend and interact with the basic XML Bean classes and interfaces in this package. It is also possible to use XML Beans without the schema compiler to manipulate and validate XML in a late-bound way (with no types, or with runtime-loaded types only).

This package contains:

1. All the built-in XML Bean classes such as {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.XmlObject}, {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.XmlAnySimpleType}, and {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.XmlInt} (one for each of the 46 built-in XML Schema types).
2. Support for full XML infoset, XPath, and XQuery (via {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.XmlCursor}, {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.XmlObject#selectPath} and related methods).
3. Support for computation using XML Schema data types (via datatype classes such as {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.GDuration}).
4. Support for working with XML Schema type metadata itself (via {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.SchemaType}, {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.SchemaTypeSystem}, and related classes).

The place to begin when working with the XML Beans API is the following fundamental classes:

1. {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.XmlObject} is the base class for all XML Beans.
2. {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.XmlObject.Factory} is used to load and create XML Bean instances. Each XML Bean class has its own nested factory class.
3. {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.XmlCursor} is an efficient treewalking API for the full XML infoset.
4. {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.SchemaType} is the type metadata interface for XML Schema types
5. {@link org.apache.xmlbeans.XmlBeans} provides a collection of utility functions.