No externally managed transaction is currently active for this thread

Question

Got the following exception after updating an entity bean and call persist method. Code the given below the exception.
Exception [TOPLINK-23010] (Oracle TopLink - 10g Release 3 (10.1.3.0.0) (Build 060118)): oracle.toplink.exceptions.TransactionException
Exception Description: No externally managed transaction is currently active for this thread
public Object persistEntity(Object entity) {
em.flush();
em.persist(entity);
return entity;
private void modifyUser (Iuser user, String newHandle, Hashtable userDetails) throws UnknownException, WarningException {
if (user == null) {
throw new WarningException (new CatalogHelper("ITOOLS_000015", "to modify a user"));
boolean handleUpdate = false;
if ((newHandle != null) && !newHandle.equals("^\\s*$")) {
handleUpdate = true;
String oldHandle = user.getUserhandle();
if (handleUpdate && oldHandle.equalsIgnoreCase(newHandle)) {
handleUpdate = false;
if (!handleUpdate && (userDetails == null) || (userDetails.size() == 0)) {
return;
if (handleUpdate) {
userDetails.put("userhandle", newHandle);
IToolsUtil.validateInputData("iuser", userDetails, false);
if (handleUpdate) {
userDetails.remove("userhandle");
System.out.println("handleUpdate " + handleUpdate);
// For User admin, handle, isactive, isadmin cannot be changed.
if (oldHandle.equals("admin")) {
if (handleUpdate) {
throw new WarningException (new CatalogHelper("ITOOLS_000045", "Handle"));
String active = (String)userDetails.get("isactive");
if ((active != null) && !active.equals("Yes")) {
throw new WarningException (new CatalogHelper("ITOOLS_000045", "Is Active"));
String admin = (String)userDetails.get("isadmin");
if ((admin != null) && !admin.equals("Yes")) {
throw new WarningException (new CatalogHelper("ITOOLS_000045", "Is Admin"));
System.out.println("user transaction started");
if (handleUpdate) {
FinderMethods fm = new FinderMethods();
try {
fm.findByUserHandle(em, newHandle);
throw new WarningException (new CatalogHelper("ITOOLS_000043", newHandle));
} catch (ObjectNotFoundException onfe) {
user.setUserhandle(newHandle);
System.out.println("User handle modified");
} catch (SQLException se) {
se.printStackTrace();
throw new UnknownException (new CatalogHelper("ITOOLS_100000", new Object[]{"modifyUser", se.getMessage()}));
String lname = (String)userDetails.get("userlname");
if (lname != null) {
user.setUserlname(lname);
String fname = (String)userDetails.get("userfname");
if (fname != null) {
user.setUserfname(fname);
String email = (String)userDetails.get("useremail");
if (email != null) {
user.setUseremail(email);
String passwd = (String)userDetails.get("userpasswd");
if (passwd != null) {
user.setUserpasswd(passwd);
String active = (String)userDetails.get("isactive");
if (active != null) {
user.setIsactive(active);
String admin = (String)userDetails.get("isadmin");
if (admin != null) {
user.setIsactive(admin);
System.out.println("details are updated");
persistEntity(user);
System.out.println("committed");
How to resolve this issue? I am using Jdeveloper 10.1.3.0.4 (SU4)
regds
-raju

Answer 1

The stack trace is given below. This exception is occured at "em.flush()" method. I even tried removing em.flush() method. Even then I got the same exception.
I tried a different way of overcome this problem. Used UserTransaction instance say "ut" before create / modify the entity bean and later comitted. In that case I am not getting any exceptions. However, commit is happening only when new instance is created, commit works, but modification of an existing instance, commit is not working. Looks like there is some serious problem with EJB 3.0 in OC4J. Basic functionality is not working.
Stack trace when flush method is called:
Local Exception Stack:
Exception [TOPLINK-23010] (Oracle TopLink - 10g Release 3 (10.1.3.0.0) (Build 060118)): oracle.toplink.exceptions.TransactionException
Exception Description: No externally managed transaction is currently active for this thread
     at oracle.toplink.exceptions.TransactionException.externalTransactionNotActive(TransactionException.java:98)
     at oracle.toplink.internal.ejb.cmp3.transaction.base.JTATransactionWrapper.checkForTransaction(JTATransactionWrapper.java:39)
     at oracle.toplink.internal.ejb.cmp3.base.EntityManagerImpl.checkForTransaction(EntityManagerImpl.java:322)
     at oracle.toplink.internal.ejb.cmp3.base.EntityManagerImpl.getActiveUnitOfWork(EntityManagerImpl.java:314)
     at oracle.toplink.internal.ejb.cmp3.base.EntityManagerImpl.flush(EntityManagerImpl.java:164)
     at com.itools.vs.model.session.AdminSessionBean.persistEntity(AdminSessionBean.java:57)
     at com.itools.vs.model.session.AdminSessionBean.createUser(AdminSessionBean.java:124)
     at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
     at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
     at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
     at com.evermind.server.rmi.RmiMethodCall.run(RmiMethodCall.java:53)
     at com.evermind.util.ReleasableResourcePooledExecutor$MyWorker.run(ReleasableResourcePooledExecutor.java:303)
     at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)
Stack trace when persist method is called:
Local Exception Stack:
Exception [TOPLINK-23010] (Oracle TopLink - 10g Release 3 (10.1.3.0.0) (Build 060118)): oracle.toplink.exceptions.TransactionException
Exception Description: No externally managed transaction is currently active for this thread
     at oracle.toplink.exceptions.TransactionException.externalTransactionNotActive(TransactionException.java:98)
     at oracle.toplink.internal.ejb.cmp3.transaction.base.JTATransactionWrapper.checkForTransaction(JTATransactionWrapper.java:39)
     at oracle.toplink.internal.ejb.cmp3.base.EntityManagerImpl.checkForTransaction(EntityManagerImpl.java:322)
     at oracle.toplink.internal.ejb.cmp3.base.EntityManagerImpl.getActiveUnitOfWork(EntityManagerImpl.java:314)
     at oracle.toplink.internal.ejb.cmp3.base.EntityManagerImpl.persist(EntityManagerImpl.java:74)
     at com.itools.vs.model.session.AdminSessionBean.persistEntity(AdminSessionBean.java:57)
     at com.itools.vs.model.session.AdminSessionBean.createUser(AdminSessionBean.java:123)
     at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
     at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
     at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
     at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585)
     at com.evermind.server.rmi.RmiMethodCall.run(RmiMethodCall.java:53)
     at com.evermind.util.ReleasableResourcePooledExecutor$MyWorker.run(ReleasableResourcePooledExecutor.java:303)
     at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:595)