JBoss Commit a transaction while a managed transaction

Question

First up, im using Eclipse, JBoss application server and a sql server database. The project im working on is handeling Java beans. I'm using hibernate to create and update the database.

What I want to achieve: Everytime a user creates(persists) the "EntityClass" (see below) I want to insert information regarding the creation in a diffrent table in the database.

My (not currently working) solution:

I'm using an interceptor class to intercept a method in a java Session bean like this;

@Interceptors(MyInterceptorClass.class)
public EntityClass createEntityClass(EntityClass e) {
    em.persist(e);
    return e;
}

My InterceptorClass looks like this:

public class MyInterceptorClass{    

@AroundInvoke
public Object logMethod(InvocationContext iCtx) throws Exception {
    Logger logger = new Logger();
    logger.setAction("create");
    Session session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession();          
    session.beginTransaction();
    session.save(logger);
    session.getTransaction().commit()
    return iCtx.proceed();
    }

my Logger class is an entity java bean that I want to persist to the database when my interceptor intercepts the target method as you can see. Code for Logger:

@Entity
@Table(name = "auditlog")
public class Logger implements Serializable {
    private int auditLogId; //auto-increment in DB
    private String action;
    ...
    //setters and getters with proper mapping to the related database table
}

As you might have figured out by now, the cointainer throws me an exception saying that I cannot commit during a managed transaction. Is there any way for me to do this without starting a new transaction?

I've tried:

*Changing the transaction attribute to REQUIRES_NEW on the logger class

*Persist the logger object with the session beans @PreDestroy callback method

I am open for suggestions on how to circle this problem.

Answer 1

I solved this problem by using Hibernate Envers for entity auditing.

http://docs.jboss.org/envers/docs/index.html#quickstart

Creds to user3360944 for hinting me in the right direction.

Answer 2

Hibernate is right, you cannot call commit during a managed transaction. Also it is a bad idea to tie the logging of an event with the event itself, because you will never be advised of failures that are rolled back in their entirety.

I would suggest using either a queue implementation of the logging function or calling a web service to to execute the logging function. Those can operate outside of the scope of the current function.

A full-featured approach would also catch any exception thrown in ctx.proceed() and log the failure which may be more interesting than the successes.