Hi,

I'm having trouble with a no transaction is in progress exception whenever I try to flush an entity manager in a particular case (I'll explain below.)

There are two separate things going on here that could be the cause and I don't know which. The first is that I'm using an Application-scoped component, and the second is that I'm using an @Asynchronous method (a Quartz scheduled method.) Either one alone could be the problem, so I apologize if I'm confounding the two.

What I have is an Application-scoped component that starts a periodic Quartz-scheduled task to clean up un-needed records in the database.

In shortened form--with some messy details removed--the code looks something like this:

@Name("accountReaper")
@Startup
@Scope(ScopeType.APPLICATION)
public class AccountReaper {

     private EntityManagerFactory emf = null;

     public AccountReaper() {
     emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("yourview");
     reapInterval =  reapHours * 60 * 60 * 1000;
     reapAccounts(new Date(), reapInterval);
     }

     @Asynchronous
     public QuartzTriggerHandle reapAccounts(@Expiration Date when, 
                                @IntervalDuration Long interval) {
          

     Calendar cal = Calendar.getInstance();
     cal.add(Calendar.HOUR_OF_DAY, -1*timeoutHours);
     Date maxCreationDate = cal.getTime();
          
     pruneUsers(maxCreationDate);
          
     return null;
     }

     @Transactional
     private void pruneUsers(Date maxCreationDate) {
          
     EntityManager entityManager = emf.createEntityManager();

     Query query = entityManager.createQuery("select m from User m
            where m.creationDate < :date and m.status = :status")
     .setParameter("date", maxCreationDate, TemporalType.TIMESTAMP)
     .setParameter("status", User.UserStatusType.UNCONFIRMED);

     List<User> users = query.getResultList();
     for (User user: users) {
          entityManager.remove(user);
     }
     if (!users.isEmpty()) entityManager.flush();

}

The trouble is that the flush() causes a this exception:

javax.persistence.TransactionRequiredException: no transaction is in progress

In a way it makes sense that @Transactional wouldn't work, since that applies to conversations and we're not in conversation-land here anymore (I believe.) Can anyone give me a hint about how to proceed? I don't know if it's the @Asynchronous method that's the problem or the Application-scope of the component that's the problem.

The only solution I can think of to try is to create my own transaction, with something like (leaving out the try/catch stuff for brevity):

     UserTransaction transaction = Transaction.instance();
     transaction.begin();
     for (User user: users) {
          entityManager.remove(user);
     }
     if (!users.isEmpty()) entityManager.flush();
     transaction.commit();

Am I on the right track? Can anyone suggest a better solution or explain the cause of the problem?

Thank you all for your attention,

Vanessa