Using a Nested or Parallel Unit of Work

You can use a unit of work within another unit of work (nesting), or you can use two or more units of work with the same objects in parallel.

Parallel Unit of Work

To start multiple units of work that operate in parallel, call the acquireUnitOfWork method multiple times on the session. The units of work operate independently of one another and maintain their own cache.

Nested Unit of Work

To nest units of work, call the acquireUnitOfWork method on the parent unit of work. This creates a child unit of work with its own cache. If a child unit of work commits, it updates the parent unit of work rather than the database. If the parent does not commit, the changes made to the child are not written to the database.

TopLink does not update the database or the cache until the outermost unit of work is committed. You must commit or release the child unit of work before you can commit its parent.

Working copy clones from one unit of work are not valid in another units of work: not even between an inner and outer unit of work. You must register objects at all levels of a unit of work where they are used.

Example 102-10 shows how to use nested units of work.

Example 102-10 Using Nested Units of Work

UnitOfWork outerUOW = session.acquireUnitOfWork();
    Pet outerPetClone = (Pet)outerUOW.readObject(Pet.class);

    UnitOfWork innerUOWa = outerUOW.acquireUnitOfWork();
        Pet innerPetCloneA =
            (Pet)innerUOWa.registerObject(outerPetClone);
        innerPetCloneA.setName("Muffy");
    innerUOWa.commit();

    UnitOfWork innerUOWb = outerUOW.acquireUnitOfWork();
        Pet innerPetCloneB =
            (Pet)innerUOWb.registerObject(outerPetClone);
        innerPetCloneB.setName("Duffy");
    innerUOWb.commit();
outerUOW.commit();