It would be very helpful if you could configure XStream to ignore certain fields and certain classes when outputing xml.

For example

public class X {
   private int v;
}

public class Y {
   private int w;
   private int z;
   private X x;
}

would generally create something like:

<Y>
 <w>0</w>
 <z>0</z>
 <x>
   <v>0</v>
 </x>
</Y>

putting in the following:

xstream.ignoreClass(X.class);
xstream.ignoreField(Y.class, "z");

would yield:

<Y>
 <w>0</w>
</Y>