SpringBoot 2.0.1 vs SpringBoot 2.0.0 (Kotlin)

[Pete Letkeman]

When I first created this code and ran it against SpringBoot 2.0.0 it worked correctly.

val firstName: String?
firstName = serverWebExchange
            .formData
            .map<List<String>> { form -> form["firstName"] }
            .block(Duration.ofSeconds(20))[0]

However with SpringBoot 2.0.1 the code breaks on

.block(Duration.ofSeconds(20))[0]

The error message that I get is "block()/blockFirst()/blockLast() are blocking, which is not supported in thread/operation"

This issue is explained here  https://stackoverflow.com/questions/49746372/how-to-execute-blocking-calls-within-a-spring-webflux-reactor-netty-web-applic
But the solution provided does not help me too much at this point as I would like to get the string value for the posted form element "firstName" and I'm not using the WebClient as far as I know.

Do you have any thoughts on how I can unwrap the form element so that I can get a String value and not a Mono<List<String>> value?