The best way to update by patch mapping object with set in fields - spring

Question

What is the best way to do patch mapping on object like this:
#Data
public class UnifiedOfferEntity {
private String companyName;
private String city;
private String title;
private Set<SkillEntity> skills;
}
In entity I have many to many realtion. I did method for update where I send map<fieldName, value> and it works properly until I am trying to put set to the request body.
public UnifiedOfferEntity patchEntity(String id, Map<Object, Object> fields) {
UnifiedOfferEntity unifiedOfferEntity = getEntityById(id);
fields.forEach((key, value) -> {
Field field = ReflectionUtils.findField(UnifiedOfferEntity.class, (String) key);
field.setAccessible(true);
ReflectionUtils.setField(field, unifiedOfferEntity, value);
});
return unifiedOfferEntity;
}
I am getting:
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Can not set java.util.Set field com.example.jobfinder.entity.UnifiedOfferEntity.seniority to java.util.ArrayList

Answer 1

have you thought in this approach:
public UnifiedOfferEntity patchEntity(String id, Map<Object, Object> fields) {
UnifiedOfferEntity unifiedOfferEntity = getEntityById(id);
enhanceUnitedOfferEntity(unifiedOfferEntity,fields);
return unifiedOfferEntity;
}
where the method would manually populate the objet based on keys as constants.. or another object...
private void enhanceUnitedOfferEntity(UnifiedOfferEntity unifiedOfferEntity, Map<Object, Object> fields){
fields.forEach((k, v) ->
switch(k) {
case "COMPANY_NAME":
unifiedOfferEntity.setCompanyName(v);
case "CITY":
unifiedOfferEntity.setCity(v);
case "TITLE":
unifiedOfferEntity.setTitle(v);
break;
case "SKILLS":
unifiedOfferEntity.setSkills(v);
break;
default:
});
}