From 534ee3a699937eedd11aa5cb54f97b081bcda621 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Tim Donohue <tim.donohue@lyrasis.org>
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2023 15:08:03 -0500
Subject: [PATCH] Verify optional message is not missing or a literal "null"
 value

---
 .../dspace/app/rest/repository/RequestItemRepository.java    | 5 ++++-
 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/dspace-server-webapp/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/rest/repository/RequestItemRepository.java b/dspace-server-webapp/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/rest/repository/RequestItemRepository.java
index f45dbee66f34..6eb631cfa56e 100644
--- a/dspace-server-webapp/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/rest/repository/RequestItemRepository.java
+++ b/dspace-server-webapp/src/main/java/org/dspace/app/rest/repository/RequestItemRepository.java
@@ -242,7 +242,10 @@ public RequestItemRest put(Context context, HttpServletRequest request,
         }
 
         JsonNode responseMessageNode = requestBody.findValue("responseMessage");
-        String message = responseMessageNode.asText();
+        String message = null;
+        if (responseMessageNode != null && !responseMessageNode.isNull()) {
+            message = responseMessageNode.asText();
+        }
 
         ri.setDecision_date(new Date());
         requestItemService.update(context, ri);