Abstract: A method and system that provides a common framework for mapping between a document (e.g. an XML document) and a software object (e.g. a Java object). The framework uses a handler that masks how a property is obtained for mapping. This results in mapping code that has a common appearance for both directions of mapping. A mapping between elements of an XML document and the properties of a Java object is contained in a mapper. A mapper maps from the XML document (108) to an object (110) using a parser (104) (such as DOM or SAX). Mapping in the other direction (Java to XML) requires that the elements of the XML document (118) be built in a particular order to ensure validity of the resulting XML document (118). The present invention builds an XML template document using JSP, for example. Using JSP based templates enables tags of the document to be written in the JSP, with callbacks to get element and attribute values. Further, content can be directed to a buffer, or directly to a response stream of a servlet.