We are looking for a way to create and read Atom Extension element (http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4287#section-6.4). For example, below is how we add a custom extension to Atom using Abdera:

Abdera abdera = new Abdera();
Entry entry = abdera.newEntry();
entry.setTitle("testCreatePackageFromAtom1");
entry.setSummary("desc for testCreatePackageFromAtom");
ExtensibleElement extension = entry.addExtension(new QName("",
"metadata"));
ExtensibleElement childExtension = extension.addExtension(new
QName("", "categories"));
childExtension.addSimpleExtension(new QName("", "value")),
"AssetPackageResourceTestCategory");

Basically we are looking for sth similar in RESTEasy. Unfortunately methods likes getAnyOther, getAnyOtherJaxbObject etc were added into RESTEasy after 2.3.4.Final, and they are not working. getAnyOtherJAXBObject returns null. I also verified the object returned by getAnyOther, yes, it is not null, but it is a ElementNSImpl object. I dont think you should expect RESTEasy users to retrieve a raw xml object using getAnyOther then marshall the raw xml to object using JAXB by themselves. This does not sound like a correct way to read Atom extension.

I hope we can have explicit methods to read and create extension element on Entry, Feed and any other elements that are valid to have extension element per spec : http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4287#section-6.4. Eg, sth like Entry.addExentionElement(Object o) and Entry.getExtensionElemnt(), this API will be easier to understand than getAnyOther or getAnyOtherJaxbObject.

Thanks.