The dataobjects and mapping

public class Action {
...
@OneToMany( targetEntity = ActionObjective.class, mappedBy = "action", cascade=CascadeType.ALL, orphanRemoval=true )
    private Set<ActionObjective> objectives = new HashSet<ActionObjective>();
...
    public void addObjective(ActionObjective objective) {
        objectives.add(objective);
        objective.setAction(this);
    }
....
}

public class ActionObjective {
     
    @Id
    @SequenceGenerator(name="SEQ", sequenceName="SCHEMA.SEQ",  allocationSize = 1 )
    @GeneratedValue(strategy=GenerationType.SEQUENCE, generator="SEQ")
    private Integer id;

    @ManyToOne
    @JoinColumn( name="ACTION_ID" )
    private Action action;
}


//The business logic.

@RemotingInclude
@Transactional
public ActionObjective createObjective(final Integer actionId,
            final ActionObjective clientObjective) {

   // clientObjective is always a detached object 

   Action action = fEm.find(Action.class,actionId);
   action.addObjective(clientObjective);

   // .update() is a wrapper around the .merge method of hibernate
   Action updated = fEm.merge( action );
   fEm.flush();

   // I need to be able to return the attached/persisted object that should now have and ID as the
   // view needs to be informed of the objects id
   // unfortunately, as this point actionObjective is not an attached object as I would assume it would be but has
  // instead been copied into a new object and then persisted.
   return actionObjective;
}