Refresh has effect on clone but not on object itself

Question

Hi,
(Using TopLink 9.0.3 with an Oracle Database)
I see some mystifying behaviour when I insert an object, refresh it because I know the database performs some changes on the data during insert from a database trigger and then inspect the refreshed object.
In short my code is as follows:
UnitOfWork unitOfWork = session.acquireUnitOfWork();
Vak vak = new Vak();
unitOfWork.registerNewObject(vak);
vak.setTitle("New Title");
unitOfWork.commit();
// the database will turn the Title to all UpperCase
session.refreshObject(vak);
// the following call prints out: New Title
// !!! not in uppercase!!
System.out.println(vak.getTitel());
unitOfWork = session.acquireUnitOfWork();
Vak vakClone = (Vak)unitOfWork.registerObject(vak);
// the following call prints out: NEWTITLE
// !!! Now it is in uppercase!!
System.out.println(vakClone.getTitel());
vakClone.setTitel("++"+vakClone.getTitel());
unitOfWork.commit();
Can someone explain this behavior? Why does the refresh have an effect on the clone of vak but not on vak itself? Is it because vak is newly created in this piece of code?
How can I ensure that the vak object itself has the changes made in the database?
thanks for your help,
Lucas Jellema (AMIS)

Answer 1

The problem is that registerNewObject has semantics beyond the obvious use of registering new objects.... Time for me to lobby for a name change :)
Search this forum for "registerNewObject" and I think you'll see some rants from me on this topic. Ultimately, in your first example in your first post, if you had just done "registerObject" instead of registerNewObject, everthing would have behaved as you hoped.
You do NOT have to use registerNewObject for new objects... registerObject is preffered.
Send me an email, donald.smith @ oracle.com and I have a UOW primer I can send (it's being incorporated into the docs for an upcoming release), but it will help clarify this in the meantime.
- Don