data field of type Optional<Map<String, Object>>

[gquintana]

Having a field of type Optional<Map<String, Object>> does not make sense to me, When no data has been set, returning a empty Map instead of an empty Optional is far simpler and clearer. Wrapping a Collection in an Optional is not considered as a good practice:

• https://dzone.com/articles/is-it-worth-it-to-use-optional-in-collections
• https://justamonad.com/wrapping-collection-in-optional-is-a-big-no-no/

At least could you add helper methods like

    public Map<String, Object> getDataMap() {
        return getData().orElse(Collections.emptyMap());
    }
    public Optional<Object> getData(String key) {
       return getData().map(data -> data.get(key));
    }

[HerrDerb]

yes, we just ran into an unexpected NPE because of this.

1. Optional as a field is a very bad smell.
2. It is even worse if the field additionally get initialized with null.

This code should be refactored