Topink 9.0.4 not generating an update statement, if the object was changed.

Question

I have 2 tables T_Objects and T_Categories.
T_Objects stores images as a BLOB field. T_Categories stores the details of an article category and references the pictogram in T_Objects via a FK.
I have 2 webpages. One which is used to load the pictogram in T_Objects and the other which is used to maintain details of the category in T_Categories. As soon as the image is uploaded and is displayed on the screen, user fills in the category details and saves them.
Each of these operations is performed in a seperate HTTP Request (and consequently seperate UOW). The idea is that the user first uploads an image, checks the image on the screen and the decides to associate it with a category.
The database is Oracle 9i. Driver used is OCI 8. Binary Steam Binding is enabled for BLOB fields. DatabasePlatform is Oracle9Platform.
The descriptors of both the tables use SoftCacheWeakIdentity and the cache size is 100. Both tables use Optimistic Locking based on a version field using TimestampLockingPolicy.
Coming to the problem, if the delay between the upload of the image and saving of the category details is large (say 20 seconds or so) Toplink generates a Update query to update the details in T_Categories. If the delay is smaller than that then Toplink fails to generate an update query even if the object was changed. Upon debugging I find that just before the commit, the BO being committed has all the correct details including the new PK of the uploaded image.
Assuming that the BO pointing to T_Objects may not be in Cache (owing to images of size 200+ KB) I did an explicit read of this object before attempting to save details to T_Categories. Even that does not seem to help.
Any ideas on what is happening here?

Answer 1

Chris. Thanks for your reply. I did not get your point. However these are the steps being done.
Can you please go through the code and check what could be wrong?
Steps
1) createContent(VmTObjectsVO vo) is called to insert into VM_T_OBJECTS.
This internally calls create ( Object obj, UnitOfWork uow, boolean commitChanges )
2) update( VmSubcategoriesVO vo ) is called to update a sub-category details to VM_T_SUBCATEGORIES.
This internally calls save( Object bo, UnitOfWork uow, boolean commitChanges )
In the save method at the time of uow.commitAndResume() no update statement is getting generated.
These core methods are used for almost all tables in the application and all of them work.
It is only in this use case I have a problem.
* Creates a new entry for storing the image/document in VM_T_OBJECTS.
* @param vo the content to be stored.
* @return the sequence assigned to this object.
public Long createContent(VmTObjectsVO vo){
VmTObjectsVO voSaved = null;
Long lnContentId = null;
if(vo != null){
VmTObjectsBO bo = new VmTObjectsBO();
/* copy the properties from the VO to the BO. */
ObjectAssembler.vo2bo((BaseVO)vo, bo);
/* Create the content */
lnContentId = create(bo);
return lnContentId;
* updates a subcategory to VM_T_SUBCATEGORIES
* @param vo VmSubcategoriesVO to update.
* @ return updated VmSubcategoriesVO
public VmSubcategoriesVO update( VmSubcategoriesVO vo ) {
VmSubcategoriesBO boSaved = null;
VmSubcategoriesVO voSaved = null;
VmSubcategoriesBO bo = new VmSubcategoriesBO( );
/* Copy the properties in the VO to the BO */
ObjectAssembler.vo2bo( vo, bo );
/* Save the changed object */
save( bo );
return voSaved;
* Stores the new object in the database and
* returns the primary key identifier with which it was created.
* @param obj The object to be created.
* @param uow Use this unit of work for performing the insert.
* @param commitChanges Should commit changes upon insertion?
* If the client wants to perform the commit operation across several others
* operations, then the value should be set to false.
* @return Primary key of the object created.
public Long create ( Object obj, UnitOfWork uow, boolean commitChanges ) {
Object cacheObj = null;
Long lnSequenceAssigned = null;
if ( obj == null ) {
throw new ObjectNotFoundException( null, null, null, null );
try {
if (uow == null) {
     /* create a new unit of work if necesasry */
     uow = getUnitOfWork( dbSession );
/* Assign a sequence number */
uow.assignSequenceNumber( obj );
/* Get the descriptor associated with this object */
Descriptor descriptor = uow.getDescriptor(obj);
/* Get the sequence assigned */
lnSequenceAssigned = (Long)descriptor.getObjectBuilder().getBaseValueForField(descriptor.getSequenceNumberField(),obj);
/* Register the object */
uow.registerObject( obj );
if(commitChanges){
/* Commit the changes */
uow.commitAndResume();
} finally {
return lnSequenceAssigned;
* Saves changes to an existing object to the data store.
* Has only been tested for flat-objects. Objects that reference other
* persistent objects have not been tested.
* @param bo The object to be saved.
* @param uow The UnitOfWork to use for saving the object.
* @param commitChanges whether the changes should be committed.
* If the client wants to perform the commit operation across several others
* operations, then the value should be set to false.
public void save( Object bo, UnitOfWork uow, boolean commitChanges ) {
if ( bo == null ){
throw new IllegalArgumentException(
"Object is invalid" );
try {
/* Register the object supposed to be existing */
Object clone = uow.registerExistingObject( bo );
/* This object does not exist */
if ( clone == null ) {
throw new ObjectNotFoundException( "object not found", "dao", bo.getClass().getName(), bo.toString());
/* Copy the properties from the object to the clone, to ensure that
* the intended properties have not been overwritten in the object from
* the cache
ObjectAssembler.copy( bo, clone );
/* Commit the changes. */
if(commitChanges){
uow.commitAndResume();
} finally {
dbSession.release( );
}