Book.java

@Entity
public class Book {
	
	...
	
	@Column
	private LocalDate publishingDate;
	
	...
	
	public Optional getPublishingDate() {
		return Optional.ofNullable(publishingDate);
	}
	
	public void setPublishingDate(LocalDate publishingDate) {
		this.publishingDate = publishingDate;
	}
}

LoadOptional.java

Session session = em.unwrap(Session.class);
Optional<Book> book = session.byId(Book.class).loadOptional(1L);

if (book.isPresent()) {
  log.info(“Found book with id [“+book.get().getId()+”] and title [“+book.get().getTitle()+”].”);
} else {
  log.info(“Book doesn’t exist.”);
}

MappingException.log

javax.persistence.PersistenceException: [PersistenceUnit: my-persistence-unit] Unable to build Hibernate SessionFactory
at org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.persistenceException(EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.java:951)
...
Caused by: org.hibernate.MappingException: Could not determine type for: java.util.Optional, at table: Book, for columns: [org.hibernate.mapping.Column(publishingDate)]
at org.hibernate.mapping.SimpleValue.getType(SimpleValue.java:454)
at org.hibernate.mapping.SimpleValue.isValid(SimpleValue.java:421)
at org.hibernate.mapping.Property.isValid(Property.java:226)
at org.hibernate.mapping.PersistentClass.validate(PersistentClass.java:595)
at org.hibernate.mapping.RootClass.validate(RootClass.java:265)
at org.hibernate.boot.internal.MetadataImpl.validate(MetadataImpl.java:329)
at org.hibernate.boot.internal.SessionFactoryBuilderImpl.build(SessionFactoryBuilderImpl.java:489)
at org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.build(EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl.java:878)
... 28 more