setEntityContext() called each time EJB accessed

[alphafoo]

I am using JBoss2.4 with BMP's using the EJB2.0 spec. My beans get created and I see the ejbCreate() methods called in my logs--- that all works fine. Each time I access a created bean, the container calls setEntityContext() on that bean. Interestingly, it does not call ejbActivate() again.

I expected this setEntityContext() method to be called only once, when the bean was moved into the pooled state.

Can someone tell me why it gets called so often?

[vincent]

I got the same impression, post this to jboss-dev.
This is inline with the spec in fact.
The problem is that JBoss (2.4.4) does not pool entity instances for reuse, so for every finder method a new entity is created and setEntityContext is run.
I submit a patch today to jboss-dev, we'll see.
If you do jndi lookup in setEntitContext you can avoid the overhead by using a ServiceLocator pattern : a singleton that holds home instances