Combining transaction and ActivitySession container policies

This topic provides details about the relationship between the deployment descriptor properties that determine how the container manages ActivitySession boundaries.

If an enterprise bean uses ActivitySessions, how the EJB container manages ActivitySession boundaries when delegating a method invocation depends on both the ActivitySession kind and Container transaction type deployment descriptor attributes configured for the enterprise bean. The following table lists the relationship between these two properties. In each row, the final column describes the behavior that the EJB container takes with respect to global transaction and ActivitySession context, based on the following abbreviations:

Sn

An ActivitySession, where n indicates the ActivitySession instance.

Tn

A transaction, where n indicates the transaction instance.

In every case where the container does not start or leave a global transaction context associated with the thread, it starts (or obtains from the bean instance) a local transaction containment and associates that with the thread. The duration of the local transaction containment is determined by a combination of the local-transaction boundary descriptor (configured as part of the application deployment descriptor, and not shown in the following table) and the presence or not of an ActivitySession context, as described in ActivitySessions and transaction contexts.

The rows highlighted in bold are not allowed.

Table 1. Container behavior for activitysession and transaction policies deployment settings

Bean ActivitySession policy(ActivitySession kind )	Bean transaction policy(Container transaction type )	Received contexts	Container behavior
Required	Required	None	Start S1, Start T1
		S1	Start T1
		T1	Suspend T1, Start S1, Start T2
		S1, T1	No Action
	Requires new	None	Start S1, Start T1
		S1	Start T1
		T1	Suspend T1, Start S1, Start T2
		S1, T1	Suspend T1, Start T2
	Supports	None	Start S1
		S1	No Action
		T1	Suspend T1, Start S1
		S1, T1	No Action
	Not supported	None	Start S1
		S1	No Action
		T1	Suspend T1, Start S1
		S1, T1	Suspend T1
	Mandatory	None	Exception
		S1	Exception
		T1	Exception
		S1, T1	No action
	Never	None	Start S1
		S1	No Action
		T1	Suspend T1, Start S1
		S1, T1	Exception
Requires new	Required	None	Start S1 + T1
		S1	Suspend S1, Start S2 + T1
		T1	Suspend T1, Start S1 + T2
		S1 + T1	Suspend S1 + T1, Start S2 + T2
	Requires new	None	Start S1 + T1
		S1	Suspend S1, Start S2 + T1
		T1	Suspend T1, Start S1 + T2
		S1 + T1	Suspend S1 + T1, Start S2 + T2
	Supports	None	Start S1
		S1	Suspend S1, Start S2
		T1	Suspend T1, Start S1
		S1, T1	Suspend S1 + T1, Start S2
	Not supported	None	Start S1
		S1	Suspend S1, Start S2
		T1	Suspend T1, Start S1
		S1, T1	Suspend S1 + T1, Start S2
	Mandatory	None	Exception
		S1	Exception
		T1	Exception
		S1, T1	Exception
	Never	None	Start S1
		S1	Suspend S1, Start S2
		T1	Suspend T1, Start S1
		S1, T1	Suspend S1 + T1, Start S2
Supports	Required	None	Start T1
		S1	Start T1
		T1	No Action
		S1, T1	No Action
	Requires new	None	Start T1
		S1	Start T1
		T1	Suspend T1, Start T2
		S1, T1	Suspend T1, Start T2
	Supports	None	No Action
		S1	No Action
		T1	No Action
		S1, T1	No Action
	Not supported	None	No Action
		S1	No Action
		T1	Suspend T1
		S1, T1	Suspend T1
	Mandatory	None	Exception
		S1	Exception
		T1	No Action
		S1, T1	No Action
	Never	None	No Action
		S1	No Action
		T1	Exception
		S1, T1	Exception
Not supported	Required	None	Start T1
		S1	Suspend S1, Start T1
		T1	No Action
		S1, T1	Suspend S1 + T1, Start T2
	Requires new	None	Start T1
		S1	Suspend S1, Start T1
		T1	Suspend T1, Start T2
		S1, T1	Suspend S1 + T1, Start T2
	Supports	None	No Action
		S1	Suspend S1
		T1	No Action
		S1, T1	Suspend S1 + T1
	Not supported	None	No Action
		S1	Suspend S1
		T1	Suspend T1
		S1, T1	Suspend S1 + T1
	Mandatory	None	Exception
		S1	Exception
		T1	No Action
		S1,T1	Exception
	Never	None	No Action
		S1	Suspend S1
		T1	Exception
		S1, T1	Suspend S1 + T1
Mandatory	Required	None	Exception
		S1	Start T1
		T1	Exception
		S1, T1	No Action
	Requires new	None	Exception
		S1	Start T1
		T1	Exception
		S1, T1	Suspend T1, Start T2
	Supports	None	Exception
		S1	No Action
		T1	Exception
		S1, T1	No Action
	Not supported	None	Exception
		S1	No Action
		T1	Exception
		S1, T1	Suspend T1
	Mandatory	None	Exception
		S1	Exception
		T1	Exception
		S1, T1	No Action
	Never	None	Exception
		S1	No Action
		T1	Exception
		S1,T1	Exception
Never	Required	None	Start T1
		S1	Exception
		T1	No Action
		S1, T1	Exception
	Requires new	None	Start T1
		S1	Exception
		T1	Suspend T1, Start T2
		S1,T1	Exception
	Supports	None	No Action
		S1	Exception
		T1	No Action
		S1,T1	Exception
	Not supported	None	No Action
		S1	Exception
		T1	Suspend T1
		S1,T1	Exception
	Mandatory	None	Exception
		S1	Exception
		T1	No Action
		S1,T1	Exception
	Never	None	No Action
		S1	Exception
		T1	Exception
		S1,T1	Exception
Bean managed	Bean managed	None	No Action
		S1	Suspend S1
		T1	Suspend T1
		S1, T1	Suspend S1 + T1

Related concepts
ActivitySessions and transaction contexts

Related tasks
Configuring EJB module ActivitySession deployment attributes