Only setX() can rollback, ejbCreate() can not

Question

Hi ,
I need your help on the strange error . I create a stateless EJB to call 3 entity bean's function , like this :
function insertInventory() {
try {
//first get the bill no.
ejbBillNo.setNo(ejbBillNo.getNo() + 1 ) ;
//then insert header table :
ejbHeaderHome.create(valueData) ; //run successful
//finally , insert details
ejbDetailHome.create(valueData) ; //will throw a SQLException
//by some sql error such as
//foreign key violation
catch (Exception ex) {
sessionContext.setRollbackOnly() ;
throw new EJBException("error") ;
//end of function
ejbBill , ejbHeader , ejbDetail all are bmp , and all the method require transaction . so , when SQLException throwed by detailHome, all change in the session function will be rollback . But it not , ejbHome has insert a record to database permanently! and ejbBillNo , ejbDetail has been rollback !
why does this happend?
I use Weblogic 6.1 as app server and web server , MSSQL as database server . Preciate for your advice .
Best Regards
lcl

Answer 1

I think the problem is that each EJB call has it's own transaction. Sounds like you want a user-transaction. A user-transaction will allow you more control - the downside is that you have to remember to commit. Here is some code examples (note: this was for EJB 1.0 -lookups are probably different)
UserTransaction utx = null;
Context jndiCtx = null;
String badMessage;
boolean needException = false;
try {
   jndiCtx = new InitialContext(System.getProperties());
   utx = (UserTransaction)jndiCtx.lookup("javax.jts.UserTransaction");
catch (NamingException ne) {
   throw new AppNamingException(ne.getMessage());
try {
    utx.begin();
        do some stuff
        if necessary, set needException flag and badMessage string
    if (!needException) {
        utx.commit();
    } else {
        utx.rollback();
        throw new AppCommitException(badMessage);
catch (Exception e) {
    throw new AppExecutionException(e.getMessage());
}