[eclipselink-dev] Bug 316531 - testRead() in LOB test model failed on We

["Andrei Ilitchev" <andrei.ilitchev@xxxxxxxxxx>]

https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=316531

The patch is ready for review.

 

The test started to fail due to the change of the test code - it used to NOT
close the entity manager before triggering the fetch group.
That means it's not a regression - to fix the test it should be just rolled
back to its previous state (rev. 6213).

The test was altered to expose the bug, which happened when a fetch group is
triggered on a detached object.
That bug was fixed as part of work on nested fetch groups (see bug 244124).
However this is still happening on WebSphere.

Investigation showed that on WebSphere after the entity manager is closed the
object is still registered in the entity manager's unitOfWork (and the uow is
not dead).

That is caused by fix to Bug 259993 - em.find() hangs up in some situations on
WebSphere 7.0.0.1.

WebSphere apparently caches EntityManagerImpls - instead of closing them it
calls em.clear and then return to a cache for future reuse.
The problem was the timing of the clear call - it came when Eclipselink has not
yet merged uow (in afterComplete).
Fix for Bug 259993 cured this problem but not allowing em.clear() called while
uow is merging to do anything but to clear the cache.

There are several drawbacks to this solution:
1) Objects read in by ValueHolders triggered on detached objects may loose
identity (uow has no cache);
2) uow is never released - map of clones, etc is held until the uow is garbage
collected.

This second point is also the reason for the test failure - the fetch group
code verifies if the object is registered in the uow, and if it is assumes that
the object is also present in uow's cache.
But currently on WebSphere using jta after em.close() the object is still
registered, but is not in the uow's cache.

The suggested solution: if em.clear is called on synchronized uow, and if the
uow is merging (WebSphere's case) then don't clear the cache, but set the flag
that will cause uow to be released after the merge in afterCompletion is
complete.

That would cure both problems listed above.