code: private Map<Integer, List<Annotation>> splitListAnnotations()
    {
      List<Annotation> metadata = Helper.getMetaData(toplevelCorpusName,
        documentName);
  
      Map<Integer, List<Annotation>> hashMetaData = new HashMap<>();
  
  
      if (metadata != null && !metadata.isEmpty())
      {
        // if called from corpus browser sort the other way around.
        if (documentName != null)
        {
          hashMetaData =
            new TreeMap<>(Collections.reverseOrder());
        }
        else
        {
          hashMetaData = new TreeMap<>();
        }
  
        for (Annotation metaDatum : metadata)
        {
          int pre = metaDatum.getPre();
          if (!hashMetaData.containsKey(pre))
          {
            hashMetaData.put(pre, new ArrayList<Annotation>());
            hashMetaData.get(pre).add(metaDatum);
          }
          else
          {
            hashMetaData.get(pre).add(metaDatum);
          }
        }
      }
  
      return hashMetaData;
    }
docs: Returns empty map if no metadata are available.