I'm using Hibernate JPA. In my application, if I do an entityManager.getTransaction().rollback(), it causes all objects retrieved from that entity manager to be detached, so that if I try to access a lazy-fetched collection after the rollback, it causes an error. Is this intentional? Is there a way to keep an in-memory object attached across a rollback?

Versions:
hibernate-3.2
hibernate-annotations-3.3.0.GA
hibernate-entitymanager-3.3.1.GA

I would say this behavior is indeed intentional. Entities are bound to the session for the lifetime of the transaction. Rolling back the transaction is just another way of terminating a transaction. For this reason I think the behavior is consistent.

The entities in question were retrieved before the transaction was begun, so it seems inconsistent that they should be influenced by a transaction that started later. Also, they are not cleared if the transaction is committed, only if it's rolled back.

1. retrieve entity A
2. begin transaction
3. modify entity B
4. rollback transaction
5. entity A is detached.

This is as per the JPA spec. The reasoning is that when you rollback your transaction, you basically messed up with the session state (the objects are in a different state than the transaction / database). so the safe operation is to clear the entityManager (it is not closed).