Spring patch for data merging

Question

Spring patch for data merging

I am using spring rest data in my project and asking a query question application/merge-patch+json. While the request application/json-patch+jsonworks well, I have problems with merge patch. For example, I have a nested object without a repository like this

"student":{
  "id":1,
  "address":{
   "id":1,
   "street":2,
   "building":2
 }
}

And I post PATCH, application/merge-patch+jsonin students/1 with this payload

{
  "address":{
   "street":3
  }
}

I get this result

"student":{
  "id":1,
  "address":{
   "id":2,
   "street":3,
   "building":null
 }
}

So spring Data rest just created a new address object instead of merging.

Java code is like this

@Entity
@Table(name = "Student")
public class Student {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue
    private long studentId;

    @OneToOne(cascade = CascadeType.ALL)
    @JoinColumn(name = "addressId")
    private Address address;

    //getters and setters
}

Address Class:

@Entity
@Table(name = "Address")
public class Address {
     @Id
     @GeneratedValue
     private long addressId;
     private String street;
     private String building;

     //getters and setters
}