Native mapping with JPA doesn't work by default - not marked cascade persi

Question

I started to use our old TopLink native mapping but via JPA instead of EclpseLink native API.
But at first execution it's already complaining of my mappings. When using the native mappings shouldn't EclipseLink interpret it to keep old behavior?
What are the other expected changes of behavior so that I can fix them proactively?
What is the workaround for this specific problem?
The error is:
java.lang.IllegalStateException: During synchronization a new object was found through a relationship that was not marked cascade PERSIST: Id: 0
DateTime: Mon Jun 08 02:00:00 EDT 2009
Entry Type: 10009
Entry Type In/Out: 10014
calendarDate: Mon Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2009
businessDate: Mon Jun 08 00:00:00 EDT 2009
origin: timecard
Inserted: true
Changed: false
Deleted: false
Mon Jun 08 02:00:00 EDT 2009.
     at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.sessions.UnitOfWorkImpl.discoverAndPersistUnregisteredNewObjects(UnitOfWorkImpl.java:4016)
     at org.eclipse.persistence.internal.sessions.RepeatableWriteUnitOfWork.discoverUnregisteredNewObjects(RepeatableWriteUnitOfWork.java:182)
persistence.xml is:
<persistence xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_1_0.xsd" version="1.0">
     <persistence-unit name="AllInOne" transaction-type="JTA" >
     <description>This represent all CITYADM schema mappings. It does include pmsi.</description>
          <exclude-unlisted-classes>false</exclude-unlisted-classes>
          <properties>
               <property name="eclipselink.session-name" value="AllInOne"/>
               <property name="eclipselink.sessions-xml" value="sessions.xml"/>
          </properties>
     </persistence-unit>
     <persistence-unit name="DataServices" transaction-type="JTA">
     <description>This represent all REPORTADM schema mappings</description>
          <exclude-unlisted-classes>false</exclude-unlisted-classes>
          <properties>
               <property name="eclipselink.session-name" value="DataServices"/>
               <property name="eclipselink.sessions-xml" value="sessionsDataServices.xml"/>
          </properties>
     </persistence-unit>
</persistence>

Answer 1

Hello Sebastien,
You are using em.persist instead of uow.regsiterObject, which has different behaviour as mandated by the JPA specification. EclipseLink/TopLink automatically registered referenced objects through registerObject, but the JPA specification states that persist will only cascade if the mapping is marked cascade persist - otherwise it is required to throw the exception you see.
If you wish to use the JPA with a project defined through native api, you will need to modify your mappings to match how you want to use the API. In this case, to get the same effect as you would from registerObject, you will need to mark your mappings as cascade persist. Depending on how you merge your entities (shallow, deep etc) you might also need to evaluate how you plan to use the JPA merge method and mark mappings as cascade merge appropriately.
See setCascadeMerge on ForeignReferenceMapping.
Best Regards,
Chris