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Baeldung Pro comes with both absolutely No-Ads as well as finally with Dark Mode, for a clean learning experience:

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Once the early-adopter seats are all used, the price will go up and stay at $33/year.

Partner – Microsoft – NPI EA (cat = Baeldung)
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Azure Container Apps is a fully managed serverless container service that enables you to build and deploy modern, cloud-native Java applications and microservices at scale. It offers a simplified developer experience while providing the flexibility and portability of containers.

Of course, Azure Container Apps has really solid support for our ecosystem, from a number of build options, managed Java components, native metrics, dynamic logger, and quite a bit more.

To learn more about Java features on Azure Container Apps, visit the documentation page.

You can also ask questions and leave feedback on the Azure Container Apps GitHub page.

Partner – Microsoft – NPI EA (cat= Spring Boot)
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Azure Container Apps is a fully managed serverless container service that enables you to build and deploy modern, cloud-native Java applications and microservices at scale. It offers a simplified developer experience while providing the flexibility and portability of containers.

Of course, Azure Container Apps has really solid support for our ecosystem, from a number of build options, managed Java components, native metrics, dynamic logger, and quite a bit more.

To learn more about Java features on Azure Container Apps, you can get started over on the documentation page.

And, you can also ask questions and leave feedback on the Azure Container Apps GitHub page.

Partner – Orkes – NPI EA (cat=Spring)
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Modern software architecture is often broken. Slow delivery leads to missed opportunities, innovation is stalled due to architectural complexities, and engineering resources are exceedingly expensive.

Orkes is the leading workflow orchestration platform built to enable teams to transform the way they develop, connect, and deploy applications, microservices, AI agents, and more.

With Orkes Conductor managed through Orkes Cloud, developers can focus on building mission critical applications without worrying about infrastructure maintenance to meet goals and, simply put, taking new products live faster and reducing total cost of ownership.

Try a 14-Day Free Trial of Orkes Conductor today.

Partner – Orkes – NPI EA (tag=Microservices)
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Modern software architecture is often broken. Slow delivery leads to missed opportunities, innovation is stalled due to architectural complexities, and engineering resources are exceedingly expensive.

Orkes is the leading workflow orchestration platform built to enable teams to transform the way they develop, connect, and deploy applications, microservices, AI agents, and more.

With Orkes Conductor managed through Orkes Cloud, developers can focus on building mission critical applications without worrying about infrastructure maintenance to meet goals and, simply put, taking new products live faster and reducing total cost of ownership.

Try a 14-Day Free Trial of Orkes Conductor today.

eBook – Guide Spring Cloud – NPI EA (cat=Spring Cloud)
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eBook – Mockito – NPI EA (tag = Mockito)
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Mocking is an essential part of unit testing, and the Mockito library makes it easy to write clean and intuitive unit tests for your Java code.

Get started with mocking and improve your application tests using our Mockito guide:

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eBook – Java Concurrency – NPI EA (cat=Java Concurrency)
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Handling concurrency in an application can be a tricky process with many potential pitfalls. A solid grasp of the fundamentals will go a long way to help minimize these issues.

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eBook – Reactive – NPI EA (cat=Reactive)
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Spring 5 added support for reactive programming with the Spring WebFlux module, which has been improved upon ever since. Get started with the Reactor project basics and reactive programming in Spring Boot:

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eBook – Java Streams – NPI EA (cat=Java Streams)
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Since its introduction in Java 8, the Stream API has become a staple of Java development. The basic operations like iterating, filtering, mapping sequences of elements are deceptively simple to use.

But these can also be overused and fall into some common pitfalls.

To get a better understanding on how Streams work and how to combine them with other language features, check out our guide to Java Streams:

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eBook – Jackson – NPI EA (cat=Jackson)
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Do JSON right with Jackson

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eBook – HTTP Client – NPI EA (cat=Http Client-Side)
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Get the most out of the Apache HTTP Client

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Get Started with Apache Maven:

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eBook – Persistence – NPI EA (cat=Persistence)
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Working on getting your persistence layer right with Spring?

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eBook – RwS – NPI EA (cat=Spring MVC)
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Building a REST API with Spring?

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Course – LS – NPI EA (cat=Jackson)
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Get started with Spring and Spring Boot, through the Learn Spring course:

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Course – RWSB – NPI EA (cat=REST)
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Explore Spring Boot 3 and Spring 6 in-depth through building a full REST API with the framework:

>> The New “REST With Spring Boot”

Course – LSS – NPI EA (cat=Spring Security)
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Yes, Spring Security can be complex, from the more advanced functionality within the Core to the deep OAuth support in the framework.

I built the security material as two full courses - Core and OAuth, to get practical with these more complex scenarios. We explore when and how to use each feature and code through it on the backing project.

You can explore the course here:

>> Learn Spring Security

Course – All Access – NPI EA (cat= Spring)
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All Access is finally out, with all of my Spring courses. Learn JUnit is out as well, and Learn Maven is coming fast. And, of course, quite a bit more affordable. Finally.

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Course – LSD – NPI EA (tag=Spring Data JPA)
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Spring Data JPA is a great way to handle the complexity of JPA with the powerful simplicity of Spring Boot.

Get started with Spring Data JPA through the guided reference course:

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Partner – LambdaTest – NPI EA (cat=Testing)
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End-to-end testing is a very useful method to make sure that your application works as intended. This highlights issues in the overall functionality of the software, that the unit and integration test stages may miss.

Playwright is an easy-to-use, but powerful tool that automates end-to-end testing, and supports all modern browsers and platforms.

When coupled with LambdaTest (an AI-powered cloud-based test execution platform) it can be further scaled to run the Playwright scripts in parallel across 3000+ browser and device combinations:

>> Automated End-to-End Testing With Playwright

Course – Spring Sale 2025 – NPI EA (cat= Baeldung)
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eBook – Jackson – NPI (cat=Jackson)
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Jackson and JSON in Java, finally learn with a coding-first approach:

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1. Introduction

In this article, we’ll give an overview of the Optional class, and then explain some problems that we might run into when using it with Jackson.

Following this, we’ll introduce a solution which will get Jackson to treat Optionals as if they were ordinary nullable objects.

2. Problem Overview

First, let’s take a look at what happens when we try to serialize and deserialize Optionals with Jackson.

2.1. Maven Dependency

To use Jackson, let’s make sure we’re using its latest version:

<dependency>
    <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.core</groupId>
    <artifactId>jackson-core</artifactId>
    <version>2.17.2</version>
</dependency>

2.2. Our Book Object

Then, let’s create a class Book, containing one ordinary and one Optional field:

public class Book {
   String title;
   Optional<String> subTitle;
   
   // getters and setters omitted
}

Keep in mind that Optionals should not be used as fields and we are doing this to illustrate the problem.

2.3. Serialization

Now, let’s instantiate a Book:

Book book = new Book();
book.setTitle("Oliver Twist");
book.setSubTitle(Optional.of("The Parish Boy's Progress"));

And finally, let’s try serializing it using a Jackson ObjectMapper:

String result = mapper.writeValueAsString(book);

We’ll see that the output of the Optional field, does not contain its value, but instead a nested JSON object with a field called present:

{"title":"Oliver Twist","subTitle":{"present":true}}

Although this may look strange, it’s actually what we should expect.

In this case, isPresent() is a public getter on the Optional class. This means it will be serialized with a value of true or false, depending on whether it is empty or not. This is Jackson’s default serialization behavior.

If we think about it, what we want is for actual the value of the subtitle field to be serialized.

2.4. Deserialization

Now, let’s reverse our previous example, this time trying to deserialize an object into an Optional. We’ll see that now we get a JsonMappingException:

@Test(expected = JsonMappingException.class)
public void givenFieldWithValue_whenDeserializing_thenThrowException
    String bookJson = "{ \"title\": \"Oliver Twist\", \"subTitle\": \"foo\" }";
    Book result = mapper.readValue(bookJson, Book.class);
}

Let’s view the stack trace:

com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException:
  Can not construct instance of java.util.Optional:
  no String-argument constructor/factory method to deserialize from String value ('The Parish Boy's Progress')

This behavior again makes sense. Essentially, Jackson needs a constructor which can take the value of subtitle as an argument. This is not the case with our Optional field.

3. Solution

What we want, is for Jackson to treat an empty Optional as null, and to treat a present Optional as a field representing its value.

Fortunately, this problem has been solved for us. Jackson has a set of modules that deal with JDK 8 datatypes, including Optional.

3.1. Maven Dependency and Registration

First, let’s add the latest version as a Maven dependency:

<dependency>
   <groupId>com.fasterxml.jackson.datatype</groupId>
   <artifactId>jackson-datatype-jdk8</artifactId>
   <version>2.13.3</version>
</dependency>

Now, all we need to do is register the module with our ObjectMapper:

ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
mapper.registerModule(new Jdk8Module());

3.2. Serialization

Now, let’s test it. If we try and serialize our Book object again, we’ll see that there is now a subtitle, as opposed to a nested JSON:

Book book = new Book();
book.setTitle("Oliver Twist");
book.setSubTitle(Optional.of("The Parish Boy's Progress"));
String serializedBook = mapper.writeValueAsString(book);
 
assertThat(from(serializedBook).getString("subTitle"))
  .isEqualTo("The Parish Boy's Progress");

If we try serializing an empty book, it will be stored as null:

book.setSubTitle(Optional.empty());
String serializedBook = mapper.writeValueAsString(book);
 
assertThat(from(serializedBook).getString("subTitle")).isNull();

3.3. Deserialization

Now, let’s repeat our tests for deserialization. If we reread our Book, we’ll see that we no longer get a JsonMappingException:

Book newBook = mapper.readValue(result, Book.class);
 
assertThat(newBook.getSubTitle()).isEqualTo(Optional.of("The Parish Boy's Progress"));

Finally, let’s repeat the test again, this time with null. We’ll see that yet again we don’t get a JsonMappingException, and in fact, have an empty Optional:

assertThat(newBook.getSubTitle()).isEqualTo(Optional.empty());

4. Conclusion

We’ve shown how to get around this problem by leveraging the JDK 8 DataTypes module, demonstrating how it enables Jackson to treat an empty Optional as null, and a present Optional as an ordinary field.

The code backing this article is available on GitHub. Once you're logged in as a Baeldung Pro Member, start learning and coding on the project.
Baeldung Pro – NPI EA (cat = Baeldung)
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Baeldung Pro comes with both absolutely No-Ads as well as finally with Dark Mode, for a clean learning experience:

>> Explore a clean Baeldung

Once the early-adopter seats are all used, the price will go up and stay at $33/year.

Partner – Microsoft – NPI EA (cat = Spring Boot)
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Azure Container Apps is a fully managed serverless container service that enables you to build and deploy modern, cloud-native Java applications and microservices at scale. It offers a simplified developer experience while providing the flexibility and portability of containers.

Of course, Azure Container Apps has really solid support for our ecosystem, from a number of build options, managed Java components, native metrics, dynamic logger, and quite a bit more.

To learn more about Java features on Azure Container Apps, visit the documentation page.

You can also ask questions and leave feedback on the Azure Container Apps GitHub page.

Partner – Orkes – NPI EA (cat = Spring)
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Modern software architecture is often broken. Slow delivery leads to missed opportunities, innovation is stalled due to architectural complexities, and engineering resources are exceedingly expensive.

Orkes is the leading workflow orchestration platform built to enable teams to transform the way they develop, connect, and deploy applications, microservices, AI agents, and more.

With Orkes Conductor managed through Orkes Cloud, developers can focus on building mission critical applications without worrying about infrastructure maintenance to meet goals and, simply put, taking new products live faster and reducing total cost of ownership.

Try a 14-Day Free Trial of Orkes Conductor today.

Partner – Orkes – NPI EA (tag = Microservices)
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Modern software architecture is often broken. Slow delivery leads to missed opportunities, innovation is stalled due to architectural complexities, and engineering resources are exceedingly expensive.

Orkes is the leading workflow orchestration platform built to enable teams to transform the way they develop, connect, and deploy applications, microservices, AI agents, and more.

With Orkes Conductor managed through Orkes Cloud, developers can focus on building mission critical applications without worrying about infrastructure maintenance to meet goals and, simply put, taking new products live faster and reducing total cost of ownership.

Try a 14-Day Free Trial of Orkes Conductor today.

eBook – HTTP Client – NPI EA (cat=HTTP Client-Side)
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The Apache HTTP Client is a very robust library, suitable for both simple and advanced use cases when testing HTTP endpoints. Check out our guide covering basic request and response handling, as well as security, cookies, timeouts, and more:

>> Download the eBook

eBook – Java Concurrency – NPI EA (cat=Java Concurrency)
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Handling concurrency in an application can be a tricky process with many potential pitfalls. A solid grasp of the fundamentals will go a long way to help minimize these issues.

Get started with understanding multi-threaded applications with our Java Concurrency guide:

>> Download the eBook

eBook – Java Streams – NPI EA (cat=Java Streams)
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Since its introduction in Java 8, the Stream API has become a staple of Java development. The basic operations like iterating, filtering, mapping sequences of elements are deceptively simple to use.

But these can also be overused and fall into some common pitfalls.

To get a better understanding on how Streams work and how to combine them with other language features, check out our guide to Java Streams:

>> Join Pro and download the eBook

eBook – Persistence – NPI EA (cat=Persistence)
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Working on getting your persistence layer right with Spring?

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Course – LS – NPI EA (cat=REST)

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Get started with Spring Boot and with core Spring, through the Learn Spring course:

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Course – Spring Sale 2025 – NPI EA (cat= Baeldung)
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Yes, we're now running our Spring Sale. All Courses are 25% off until 26th May, 2025:

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Course – Spring Sale 2025 – NPI (All)
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Yes, we're now running our Spring Sale. All Courses are 25% off until 26th May, 2025:

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eBook Jackson – NPI EA – 3 (cat = Jackson)