Hibernate version: 3.3.1GA

Full stack trace of any exception that occurs:

Root cause:
org.hibernate.TransactionException: could not register synchronization
at org.hibernate.transaction.JTATransaction.registerSynchronization(JTATransaction.java:316)
at org.hibernate.context.ThreadLocalSessionContext.currentSession(ThreadLocalSessionContext.java:105)
at org.hibernate.impl.SessionFactoryImpl.getCurrentSession(SessionFactoryImpl.java:574)
at edu.andrews.its.services.donate.DonationFormAction.execute(DonationFormAction.java:37)
at org.apache.struts.chain.commands.servlet.ExecuteAction.execute(ExecuteAction.java:58)
at org.apache.struts.chain.commands.AbstractExecuteAction.execute(AbstractExecuteAction.java:67)
at org.apache.struts.chain.commands.ActionCommandBase.execute(ActionCommandBase.java:51)
at org.apache.commons.chain.impl.ChainBase.execute(ChainBase.java:191)
at org.apache.commons.chain.generic.LookupCommand.execute(LookupCommand.java:305)
at org.apache.commons.chain.impl.ChainBase.execute(ChainBase.java:191)
at org.apache.struts.chain.ComposableRequestProcessor.process(ComposableRequestProcessor.java:283)
at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.process(ActionServlet.java:1913)
at org.apache.struts.action.ActionServlet.doGet(ActionServlet.java:449)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:627)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:729)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.ServletFilterChain.doFilter(ServletFilterChain.java:103)
at com.opensymphony.module.sitemesh.filter.PageFilter.doFilter(PageFilter.java:39)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:87)
at edu.andrews.its.security.SecurityFilter.doFilter(SecurityFilter.java:195)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:87)
at org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.support.OpenSessionInViewFilter.doFilterInternal(OpenSessionInViewFilter.java:198)
at org.springframework.web.filter.OncePerRequestFilter.doFilter(OncePerRequestFilter.java:76)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:87)
at edu.andrews.its.webapp.session.SessionFilter.doFilter(SessionFilter.java:132)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:87)
at edu.andrews.its.webapp.ui.CachingFilter.doFilter(CachingFilter.java:64)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.FilterFilterChain.doFilter(FilterFilterChain.java:87)
at com.caucho.server.webapp.WebAppFilterChain.doFilter(WebAppFilterChain.java:187)
at com.caucho.server.dispatch.ServletInvocation.service(ServletInvocation.java:266)
at com.caucho.server.http.HttpRequest.handleRequest(HttpRequest.java:270)
at com.caucho.server.port.TcpConnection.run(TcpConnection.java:678)
at com.caucho.util.ThreadPool$Item.runTasks(ThreadPool.java:721)
at com.caucho.util.ThreadPool$Item.run(ThreadPool.java:643)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:636)

Name and version of the database you are using:
MySQL5 - hibernate is set up for the MySQL5 dialect.

Problems with Session and transaction handling?

Read this: http://hibernate.org/42.html (Yes, I've read it...)

Background on the problem:

I've got a webapp where I'd like to use Hibernate with a Session-per-request and Transaction-per-request. I've already gotten the app working where I manually create a transaction for one particular piece of code that does Hibernate access, so I know my Hibernate config and mappings work OK.

I'm running into problems getting a Transaction-per-request going. The app previously had a TransactionFilter set up that would begin() and commit()/rollback() a JTA transaction for each request. Instead of that, I've installed Spring's OpenSessionInViewFilter to create a Hibernate session for each request. I'm running into the above exception when I try to load a page from my app. I know I might need the TransactionFilter as well - not really sure how that part fits in yet, although I did try things with it as well.

From digging around, it looks like the exception happens in org.hibernate.context.ThreadLocalSessionContext.currentSession(). The lines in question:
if (current == null) {
current = buildOrObtainSession();
current.getTransaction().registerSynchronization(buildCleanupSynch());
...

In this situation, buildOrObtainSession() returns a new session that has a new Transaction. The getTransaction() call returns null because the app server's internal per-thread transaction has not yet been begin()'d (which means it has STATUS_NO_TRANSACTION, which means Resin's getTransaction() method returns null).

Other details:

I'm using Resin 3.1.7 for the app server, and Spring 2.5.5 for its LocalSessionFactoryBean and JtaTransactionManager.

My question:

I want to blame Hibernate (of course) for not calling begin() on the transaction when it creates a new session, but it could be Resin's fault, or most likely mine for misconfiguring or misusing these filters.

1. Does anyone have OpenSessionInViewFilter working to enable per-request transactions for Hibernate? Perhaps together with a transaction filter? If so, which order should they be used in?

2. Is this a bug? Any other relevant info I can provide?

Thanks in advance,
-- Elliot

The solution I just found was to change hibernate's setting for current_session_context_class from 'thread' to 'jta', and remove the OpenSessionInViewFilter altogether (using just the TransactionFilter that was already implemented). This seems to work just fine for my needs...