Context variables aren't being updated in the DB

[tx_dome]

Hi,

I have some custom class:

public class Dummy implements Serializable {
 public String text;

 public Dummy(String text) { this.text = text; }

 public boolean equals(Object obj) {...}

 public int hashCode() { ... }

 public String toString() { return text; }
}

Then I create a process instance and put a Dummy object into the context:

processInstance_.getContextInstance().setVariable("dummy", new Dummy("at start"));

After that, I load process instance (in another transaction/JbpmContext), call signal() on its root token
and modify the dummy object within an ActionHandler which runs in the same process instance/token:

Dummy d = (Dummy) executionContext.getContextInstance().getVariable("dummy");
d.text = "step 2";

Problem 1: when I close the jbpm context, the variable isn't being updated in the database (even with equals() and hashCode() implemented).
Only when I "re-set" the variable after modifying the dummy object:

executionContext.getContextInstance().setVariable("dummy", d);

It gets saved. But when I save a Java primitive or a LinkedList for example as the variable, then it get's saved automatically.
What do I have to do so my objects get saved automatically after modifying them?


Problem 2: the rows in the jbpm_byteblock aren't updated (most of the time), but when I save an existing processinstance, the modified variables are serialized into a newrow, rather than updating the existing row for the same process instance/token.
So for example when I have a java.util.List saved as a context variable and i modify it, it gets serialized into a new row and the old row from jbpm_byteblock isn't referenced anymore in the DB (as far as I can tell) so it isn't needed.

How can I achieve that all the context variables are updated in the database rather than being saved as new rows?

Thanx in advance