Some follow-up info on the problem is that the code before was using Session.saveOrUpdateCopy() previously to save the new instance, and I changed it to merge() based on the migration guide.
The javadoc on merge says :
Quote:
If the given instance is unsaved, save a copy of and return it as a newly persistent instance.
I assumed that meant that the object that gets returned should be the same as the object i passed in, but this is not that case. the object that is returned from merge() has all null values. I'm sure this is why I'm getting the error, but I still don't know what I'm doing wrong.
This is probably an easy one. I appreciate anyone's help!
Nathan