Java – Jackson Deserialize the missing attribute to null optional

Suppose I have such a class:

public static class Test {

        private Optional<String> something;

        public Optional<String> getSomething() {
            return something;
        }

        public void setSomething(Optional<String> something) {
            this.something = something;
        }

    }

If I deserialize this JSON, I get an empty optional:

{"something":null}

But if the attribute is missing (in this case, just empty JSON), I get null instead of optional Of course I can initialize fields myself, but I think it's best to have a mechanism of null and missing attributes Is there any way to make Jackson deserialize the missing attribute empty and optional?

Solution

Optional is not really meant to be used as a field, but more as a return value Why not:

public static class Test {
  private String something;
  public Optional<String> getSomething() {
    return Optional.ofNullable(something);
  }
  public void setSomething(String something) {
    this.something = something;
  }
}