I have a stateless bean something like:

@Stateless
public class MyStatelessBean implements MyStatelessLocal, MyStatelessRemote {
    @PersistenceContext(unitName="myPC")
    private EntityManager mgr;

    @TransationAttribute(TransactionAttributeType.SUPPORTED)
    public void processObjects(List<Object> objs) {
        // this method just processes the data; no need for a transaction
        for(Object obj : objs) {
            this.process(obj);
        }
    }

    @TransationAttribute(TransactionAttributeType.REQUIRES_NEW)
    public void process(Object obj) {
        // do some work with obj that must be in the scope of a transaction

        this.mgr.merge(obj);
        // ...
        this.mgr.merge(obj);
        // ...
        this.mgr.flush();
    }
}

The typically usage then is the client would call processObjects(...), which doesn't actually interact with the entity manager. It does what it needs to do and calls process(...) individually for each object to process. The duration of process(...) is relatively short, but processObjects(...) could take a very long time to run through everything. Therefore I don't want it to maintain an open transaction. I do need the individual process(...) operations to operate within their own transaction. This should be a new transaction for every call. Lastly I'd like to keep the option open for the client to call process(...) directly.

I've tried a number of different transaction types: never, not supported, supported (on processObjects) and required, requires new (on process) but I get TransactionRequiredException every time merge() is called.

I've been able to make it work by splitting up the methods into two different beans:

@Stateless
@TransationAttribute(TransactionAttributeType.NOT_SUPPORTED)
public class MyStatelessBean1 implements MyStatelessLocal1, MyStatelessRemote1 {
    @EJB
    private MyStatelessBean2 myBean2;

    public void processObjects(List<Object> objs) {
        // this method just processes the data; no need for a transaction
        for(Object obj : objs) {
            this.myBean2.process(obj);
        }
    }
}

@Stateless
public class MyStatelessBean2 implements MyStatelessLocal2, MyStatelessRemote2 {
    @PersistenceContext(unitName="myPC")
    private EntityManager mgr;

    @TransationAttribute(TransactionAttributeType.REQUIRES_NEW)
    public void process(Object obj) {
        // do some work with obj that must be in the scope of a transaction

        this.mgr.merge(obj);
        // ...
        this.mgr.merge(obj);
        // ...
        this.mgr.flush();
    }
}

but I'm still curious if it's possible to accomplish this in one class. It looks to me like the transaction manager only operates at the bean level, even when individual methods are given more specific annotations. So if I mark one method in a way to prevent the transaction from starting calling other methods within that same instance will also not create a transaction, no matter how they're marked?

I'm using JBoss Application Server 4.2.1.GA, but non-specific answers are welcome / preferred.