Fault Loading + Extended Transactions + Cascades = Optimistic Lock Exceptions
Foiled again by EJB3 and JPA. Just when I thought that switching to EXTENDED transaction mode had solved my problems, I began seeing optimistic lock exceptions.circumvent the problem entirely.
To make a very long and trying series of events very short, fault loading does not exist. With great respect to Dain Sundstrom, just because something should work doesn't mean it will. Nowhere in the EJB 3 spec is it mentioned, I can find no reference to it online aside from an e-mail between Dain and Patrick Linksey, and that e-mail sounded inconclusive. If it does exist, it's called something else or is a feature specific to OpenEJB.
Even so, I got a world class education in transaction mechanics today from David Blevins and Dain Sundstrom. So, Kudos to them both for slogging through my code with me. I'm going to turn my attention once more to JPA fetch groups and see if I can nail down the problem I was having with those earlier. It had something to do with concurrent modification exceptions, but with this new explicit control over transaction duration, I might be able to