Hibernate in emeddable websphere container does not find java:comp/websphere/ExtendedJTATransaction

Question

I have a Java EE application which uses Hibernate 4.2.7 as persistence provider executing Junit tests in an embeddable Websphere 8.0.0 container. Database access works fine in a real (i.e. non-embedded) Websphere 8.0.0 instance. The unit tests do work when run with OpenJPA instead of Hibernate. However, running the Junit tests with Hibernate, I get the following exception:

CNTR0020E: EJB threw an unexpected (non-declared) exception during invocation of method "getEntity" on bean "BeanId(embeddable#classes#SomeBean, null)". Exception data: org.hibernate.service.jndi.JndiException: Unable to lookup JNDI name [java:comp/websphere/ExtendedJTATransaction]
    at org.hibernate.service.jndi.internal.JndiServiceImpl.locate(JndiServiceImpl.java:68)
    at org.hibernate.service.jta.platform.internal.WebSphereExtendedJtaPlatform$TransactionManagerAdapter$TransactionAdapter.(WebSphereExtendedJtaPlatform.java:156)
    at org.hibernate.service.jta.platform.internal.WebSphereExtendedJtaPlatform$TransactionManagerAdapter$TransactionAdapter.(WebSphereExtendedJtaPlatform.java:152)
    at org.hibernate.service.jta.platform.internal.WebSphereExtendedJtaPlatform$TransactionManagerAdapter.getTransaction(WebSphereExtendedJtaPlatform.java:124)
    at org.hibernate.service.jta.platform.internal.WebSphereExtendedJtaPlatform$TransactionManagerAdapter.getStatus(WebSphereExtendedJtaPlatform.java:119)
    at org.hibernate.engine.transaction.internal.jta.JtaStatusHelper.getStatus(JtaStatusHelper.java:73)
    at org.hibernate.engine.transaction.internal.jta.JtaStatusHelper.isActive(JtaStatusHelper.java:115)
    at org.hibernate.service.jta.platform.internal.TransactionManagerBasedSynchronizationStrategy.canRegisterSynchronization(TransactionManagerBasedSynchronizationStrategy.java:56)
    ... stripped ...

It seems the implementation of WebsphereExtendedJtaPlatform is trying to get the current transaction via a JNDI lookup but fails because that JNDI name does not exist in the embedded container. Here's a snipped from org.hibernate.service.jta.platform.internal.WebsphereExtendedJtaPlatform:

public class TransactionAdapter implements Transaction {

    private TransactionAdapter() {
        if ( extendedJTATransaction == null ) {
            extendedJTATransaction = jndiService().locate( "java:comp/websphere/ExtendedJTATransaction" );
        }
    }
... stripped ...

The class ExtendedJtaTransaction itself does exist on the class path inside com.ibm.ws.runtime.jar.

The settings in our persistence.xml look like this:

<persistence-unit name="BLA" transaction-type="JTA">
<provider>org.hibernate.ejb.HibernatePersistence</provider>
<jta-data-source>jdbc/BLA</jta-data-source>
<class>com.some.Entity</class>
<exclude-unlisted-classes>true</exclude-unlisted-classes>
<properties>
  <property name="hibernate.dialect" value="org.hibernate.dialect.Oracle10gDialect" />
  <property name="hibernate.archive.autodetection" value="class" />
  <property name="hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class" value="org.hibernate.transaction.WebSphereExtendedJTATransactionLookup" />
  <property name="jta.UserTransaction" value="java:comp/UserTransaction" />
  <property name="hibernate.show_sql" value="true" />
  <property name="hibernate.format_sql" value="true" />
  <property name="hibernate.jdbc.fetch_size" value="100" />
  <property name="hibernate.temp.use_jdbc_metadata_defaults" value="false" />
</properties>

Does anyone have a solution for this? Thanks!

Answer 1

Transaction strategy configuration

Hibernate requires the configuration of two essential pieces in order to properly run with transactions. The first, hibernate.transaction.factory_class, defines transactional control and the second, hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class, defines the mechanism for registration of transaction synchronization so the persistence manager is notified at transaction end when it needs to synchronize changes with the database. For transactional control, both container-managed and bean-managed configurations are supported. The following properties must be set in Hibernate.cfg.xml when using Hibernate with WebSphere Application Server:

for container-managed transactions:

<property name="hibernate.transaction.factory_class">
    org.hibernate.transaction.CMTTransactionFactory
</property>
<property name="hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class">
    org.hibernate.transaction.WebSphereExtendedJTATransactionLookup
</property>

for bean-managed transactions:

<property name="hibernate.transaction.factory_class">
    org.hibernate.transaction.JTATransactionFactory
</property>
<property name="hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class">
    org.hibernate.transaction.WebSphereExtendedJTATransactionLookup
</property>
<property name="jta.UserTransaction">
    java:comp/UserTransaction
</property >

The jta.UserTransaction property configures the factory class to obtain an instance of a UserTransaction object instance from the WebSphere container.

The hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class property is supported on the WebSphere platform by WebSphere Application Server V6.x and later, and on WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation V5.1 and later. This property configures Hibernate to use the ExtendedJTATransaction interface, which was introduced in WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation V5.1 and WebSphere Application Server V6.0. The WebSphere ExtendedJTATransaction interface establishes a pattern that is formalized in Java EE 5 via the JTA 1.1 specification.