Declarative transactions (@Transactional) doesn't work with @Repository in Spring

Question

I'm trying to make simple application using Spring, JPA and embedded H2 database. Recently I've come across this strange issue with declarative transactions. They just doesn't commit if I autowire my DAO with @Repository annotation. More specifically I get exception on flush:

javax.persistence.TransactionRequiredException: 
Exception Description: No transaction is currently active

Here is my setup:

persistence.xml

<persistence-unit name="schedulePU" transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">
    <provider>org.eclipse.persistence.jpa.PersistenceProvider</provider>
    <exclude-unlisted-classes>false</exclude-unlisted-classes>
    <properties>
        <property name="javax.persistence.jdbc.driver" value="org.h2.Driver" />
        <property name="javax.persistence.jdbc.url" value="jdbc:h2:~/scheduleDB" />
        <property name="javax.persistence.jdbc.user" value="sa" />
        <property name="javax.persistence.jdbc.password" value="" />
        <property name="eclipselink.target-database" value="org.eclipse.persistence.platform.database.H2Platform" />
        <property name="eclipselink.ddl-generation" value="drop-and-create-tables" />
        <property name="eclipselink.logging.level" value="FINE"/>
    </properties>
</persistence-unit>

Entity

@Entity
@Table(name = "Professors")
public class Professor {

    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private int id;
    private String name;

    public Professor() { }

    public Professor(String name) {
        this.name = name;
    }
}

DAO

@Repository
public class JpaDao {

    @PersistenceContext
    private EntityManager em;

    @Transactional
    public void addProfessor(Professor professor) {
        em.persist(professor);
        em.flush();
    }
}

database.xml (included from root spring context)

<beans>
    <context:component-scan base-package="com.spybot.schedule.dao" />

    <bean class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.support.PersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor" />

    <bean id="entityManagerFactory" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.LocalEntityManagerFactoryBean">
        <property name="persistenceUnitName" value="schedulePU" />
    </bean>

    <bean id="transactionManager" class="org.springframework.orm.jpa.JpaTransactionManager">
        <property name="entityManagerFactory" ref="entityManagerFactory" />
    </bean>

    <tx:annotation-driven transaction-manager="transactionManager" />
</beans>

Controller

@Controller
public class HomeController {

    @Inject
    JpaDao dao;

    @RequestMapping("/add")
    public @ResponseBody String add(String name) {
        Professor p = new Professor(name);
        dao.addProfessor(p);
        return ":)";
    }
}

And now the interesting part. If I remove @Repository annotation from DAO and specify it explicitly in database.xml, everything works fine.

Update

Putting another <tx:annotation-driven /> into spring servlet config fixes the problem, but why?

Very useful, thank you. I had been battling with a similar issue for two days and moving `` to the main context worked for me too. Thanks. — Julius, Jul 18 '12 at 22:27

score 5 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 03 '12 at 10:11

Probably because the component-scan in your spring-servlet.xml is also including your DAO classes in its scanning and therefore creating instances for them in its application context (not the "database" one)... so that when your web accesses these DAOs from web controllers, it is accessing non-transactional versions of them (unless you add that tx:annotation-driven tag).

Therefore, adding that tag is in fact a bad solution because it still creates your DAO instances in the wrong application context: better create a more specific base-packageconfiguration for your web layer component creation.

I had this same problem because I thought a <context:include-filter> in my spring-servlet.xml was taking care of only scanning @Controller classes... but no :-(

Ramesh Kotha · Answer 2 · 2012-01-29T11:32:37.897

0

The @Transactional annotation may be placed before an interface definition, a method on an interface, a class definition, or a public method on a class. However, please note that the mere presence of the @Transactional annotation is not enough to actually turn on the transactional behavior - the @Transactional annotation is simply metadata that can be consumed by something that is @Transactional-aware and that can use the metadata to configure the appropriate beans with transactional behavior. In the case of the above example, it is the presence of the <tx:annotation-driven/> element that switches on the transactional behavior.

from spring doc http://static.springsource.org/spring/docs/2.0.8/reference/transaction.html

edited Jan 29 '12 at 11:32

answered Jan 29 '12 at 11:23

Ramesh Kotha

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Do you really want to quote the Spring docs from version 2.0.8? – skaffman Jan 29 '12 at 11:34
Did you even read the question? I've had `` in my **application context**. I'm asking why putting it additionaly into **servlet context** solves the problem. – SpyBot Jan 29 '12 at 14:08

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 29 '12 at 11:31

0

Just a guess, but you don't need to register your own PersistenceAnnotationBeanPostProcessor, since <context:component-scan> registers one automatically. It's possible that the two are interfering with one another.

Like I said, though, just a hunch.

answered Jan 29 '12 at 11:31

skaffman

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