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JPA: Reuse persistence.xml with jta-data-source in JSE and JUnit by overriding the datasource

I have this peristence.xml that deploys on WildFly:
<persistence-unit name="optaweb-employee-rostering-persistence-unit" transaction-type="JTA">
<jta-data-source>java:jboss/datasources/ExampleDS</jta-data-source>
...
</persistence-unit>
Now I'd like to reuse it in a plain Java application, with a direct JDBC connection, so without JNDI:
Map<String, String> properties = new HashMap<>();
properties.put("javax.persistence.jdbc.driver", "org.hsqldb.jdbcDriver");
properties.put("javax.persistence.jdbc.url", "jdbc:hsqldb:mem:testdb");
properties.put("javax.persistence.jdbc.user", "sa");
properties.put("javax.persistence.jdbc.password", "");
// Overwrites transaction-type successfully
properties.put("javax.persistence.transactionType", "RESOURCE_LOCAL");
// TODO overwrite jta-data-source
EntityManagerFactory entityManagerFactory = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory(
"optaweb-employee-rostering-persistence-unit", properties);
How do I overwrite jta-data-source?
I've tried a number of JPA properties to override jta-data-source, with no success:
// Overwrites jta-data-source
// but triggers a JNDI lookup of "" which crashes of course
properties.put("javax.persistence.jtaDataSource", "");
// Does not overwrite jta-data-source
properties.put("javax.persistence.jtaDataSource", null);
// Does not overwrite jta-data-source
properties.put("javax.persistence.nonJtaDataSource", "foo");
I've also tried a number of hibernate specific properties, such as hibernate.transaction.coordinator_class and hibernate.connection.datasource with the same failing results as above.

As far as I can tell from the source of Hibernate ORM (in particular org.hibernate.jpa.boot.internal.EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl#EntityManagerFactoryBuilderImpl(org.hibernate.jpa.boot.spi.PersistenceUnitDescriptor, java.util.Map, java.lang.ClassLoader, org.hibernate.boot.registry.classloading.spi.ClassLoaderService)), these particular JPA settings override settings from hibernate.properties or from the Map you will provide to Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory.
It may be a dumb idea, but can't you just do the opposite, i.e. not set the datasource in your persistence unit, but set it through a hibernate.properties file in your WildFly application? Then you can do whatever you want in your plain java application.

Get the url that the Connection uses to connect the database

I'm trying to get the url that the Connection uses to connect the database as following :
getEntityManager().unwrap(SessionImplementor.class).connection().getMetaData().getURL();
But I get this error :
java.lang.IllegalStateException: No transactional EntityManager available
How can I solve this ?
Edit:
I don't understand why this question was considered as duplicated to a Hibernate solution, I'm using JPA, so I'm trying to get the url using entityManager and not sessionFactory.

The solution was to add the #Transactional annotation.

The SessionImplementor Interface is form Hibernate, so which JPA Implementation are you using then?

Inject java.sql.Connection into controller for Ninja Framework

I want to use JOOQ to access my database from the Ninja Framework. How can I get a JDBC connection from a controller?
Here's resources I found that didn't quite work.
How to retrieve the datasource used by a persistence unit programmatically - Tedious set of steps to get the connection from an EntityManager.
http://blog.jooq.org/2015/05/26/type-safe-queries-for-jpas-native-query-api/ - works by building a query in JOOQ and passing to EntityManager.createNativeQuery. It's functional, but it's not as nice as just having the connection.
Could I inject the connection into a controller like so:
public Result myController(#DBConnection Connection connection) {
List<String> articles = DSL.using(connection).selectFrom(ARTICLE).fetch(ARTICLE.TITLE);
return Results.html().render("template", articles);
}
DropWizards has a plugin that looks like a winner: https://github.com/benjamin-bader/droptools/tree/master/dropwizard-jooq
public BlogPost getPost(#QueryParam("id") int postId, #Context DSLContext database) {
BlogPostRecord post = database
.selectFrom(POST)
.where(POST.ID.equal(postId))
.fetchOne();
// do stuff
}

Following up on #LukasEder's answer this is the approach:
HibernateEntityManagerFactory hibernateEntityManagerFactory = ((EntityManagerImpl) entityManager).getFactory();
SessionFactoryImpl sessionFactoryImpl = (SessionFactoryImpl) hibernateEntityManagerFactory.getSessionFactory();
C3P0ConnectionProvider c3P0ConnectionProvider = (C3P0ConnectionProvider) sessionFactoryImpl.getConnectionProvider();
Connection connection = c3P0ConnectionProvider.getConnection();
This is obviously very very strange and bad code.
A clean solution is to provide access to Connection / DataSource by Ninja directly (separating the connection pool from Hibernate or any implementation). That is not too hard and is partly done in the ebeans plugin. Let's discuss that on our mailing list if you are interested in contributing code :)

Short of any option to retrieve a JDBC Connection or DataSource from ninja framework directly, the standard approach should be to "unwrap" it from the EntityManager:
Connection connection = em.unwrap(Connection.class);
See also: How to get DataSource or Connection from JPA2 EntityManager in Java EE 6
A Hibernate-specific approach is documented here: How to retrieve the datasource used by a persistence unit programmatically

java.lang.ClassCastException,Getting Entitymanager Via JNDI Lookup

I am new to JPA and developing a webapp(J2EE) where the webapp is in Tomcat so I can't use #PersistenceContext. I decided to use a Helper class and everything was going fine. Then I decided to implement JNDI for connection pooling and I managed to get Datasource.
The Helper Class looks like the following:
try {
Context initCtx = new InitialContext();
entityManager = //class cast exception
(EntityManager)initCtx.lookup(
"java:/comp/env/jdbc/LCDS"
);
DataSource ds= (DataSource)initCtx.lookup(
"java:/comp/env/jdbc/LCDS"
);
System.out.println(ds.getConnection()+"Cool");
//jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/XXXXXXX, UserName=root#localhost, MySQL-AB JDBC DriverCool
emf=(EntityManagerFactory) source.getConnection(); //class cast exception
emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("XXXX"); //working version
}
The error is:
ava.lang.ClassCastException: org.apache.tomcat.dbcp.dbcp.BasicDataSource cannot be cast to javax.persistence.EntityManager
I don't know where I am getting wrong. I am not able to get EntityManagerFactory or EntityManager via JNDI lookup. I tried #Resource(name="jdbc/LCDS") and #PersistenceUnit(name="jdbc/LCDS").

To use a JNDI datasource in JPA, this should be specified in the persistence.xml, something like:
<persistence xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_2_0.xsd" version="2">
<persistence-unit name="..." transaction-type="RESOURCE_LOCAL">
<non-jta-data-source>java:/comp/env/jdbc/LCDS</non-jta-data-source>
...
Then you just have to create your EntityManagerFactory via Persistence#createEntityManagerFactory(String). If you want to recycle the EntityManagerFactory, this should be done outside of JNDI (e.g. as a ServletContext attribute). This is because Tomcat is not a Java EE server, only a servlet container: he is not able to inject the persistence unit.

UPDATE
JNDI access to persistence unit is not possible due to Tomcat limitations. See JPA Tomcat limitations. You will have to use emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("UNIT NAME").
Sorry for misleading answer. I've tested that on WebSphere Liberty, didn't have Tomcat at hand.
If you need that functionality check WebSphere Liberty, which is as fast and lightweight as Tomcat, but is fully Java EE Web profile compliant. It has lots of useful features like JPA, EJBLite, JAX-RS already available if needed, without fighting with additional libraries configuration.
UPDATE END
I've checked on WebSphere Liberty, you need to create reference to lookup your persistence unit via JNDI. You have two options to create that:
Use annotation at the class level
In any of your servlets you need to define annotation using the follownig:
#PersistenceUnit(name="JPATestRef", unitName="UnitName")
public class JPATester extends HttpServlet {
...
Use entry in web.xml
<persistence-unit-ref>
<persistence-unit-ref-name>JPATestRef</persistence-unit-ref-name>
<persistence-unit-name>UnitName</persistence-unit-name>
</persistence-unit-ref>
Then you access it using the following code:
try {
InitialContext ctx = new InitialContext();
System.out.println("looking EntityManagerFactory:");
EntityManagerFactory emf2 = (EntityManagerFactory) ctx.lookup("java:comp/env/JPATestRef");
System.out.println("emf:2" + emf2);
} catch (NamingException e) {

Correct usage of JPA in jsp application

I'm trying to develop a simple JSP based web application with JPA and would like to know the correct usage for developing one.
In my sample application I have two JSP pages and a simple Java class to perform database operations. Both the JSP files use this Java class to perform DB operations.
I've annotated this class with #Stateless and injected an Entity manager as follows:
#PersistenceContext(unitName = "myjpa")
EntityManager em;
In my persistence.xml I've set the following property:
<property
name="hibernate.transaction.jta.platform"
value="org.hibernate.service.jta.platform.internal.JBossAppServerJtaPlatform"
/>
I'm calling the class in JSP using JNDI (as the class is annotated for a stateless session bean) as follows:
InitialContext ic = new InitialContext();
Sample sample = (Sample) ic.lookup("java:app/" + application.getContextPath() + "/Sample");
I'm facing the following scenarios:
When I try to use a transaction em.getTransaction().begin()/commit() for insert and update, it says can not use transaction with JTA case.
So in the constructor code of my Java class I use the following code:
Properties properties = new Properties();
properties.put("javax.persistence.transactionType", "RESOURCE_LOCAL");
emf = Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory("myjpa",properties);
em = emf.createEntityManager();
I tried to use transactions like em.getTransaction().begin()/commit().
But in this case the pages become very slow after 2-3 database update and load operations. Though I'm not getting any exception. Overall in my table I'm having less than 25 records.
To me it seems as if it is waiting internally for some operation to complete.
At the same time I also feel that the way I'm using JPA is wrong and hence soliciting advice for the correct approach for doing even simple web apps with JSP and JPA.
While I'm still exploring Java EE, in case you have any specific reference for such cases I'll like to read and look them too.

You should always strive to use JTA transactions which means the container will handle the transaction demarcations. In your case if you want to handle transactions by your self, you need to define it as a bean managed transaction. So in your EJB class, after the #Stateless annoattions, you should define the following annotation;
#TransactionManagement(TransactionManagementType.BEAN)
The usual best practice is to let the container handle the transactions, unless there is some explicit reason for you to use Bean managed transactions.

At the same time I also feel that the way I'm using JPA is wrong
Your usage indeed seems wrong. If you're using a (stateless) session bean you do not have to fiddle with em.getTransaction().begin()/commit() and you definitely don't have to use code such as Persistence.createEntityManagerFactory.
You also don't have to set the property org.hibernate.service.jta.platform.internal.JBossAppServerJtaPlatform.
A session bean automatically manages the transaction for you, and within a Java EE AS (such as JBoss AS) you don't have to configure any transaction manager or similar things.
An example:
#Stateless
public class UserDAO {
#PersistenceContext
private EntityManager entityManager;
public void add(User user) {
entityManager.persist(user);
}
}
As for the persistence.xml file, something like the following should be enough to get started:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<persistence version="2.0"
xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/persistence/persistence_2_0.xsd">
<persistence-unit name="somePU">
<jta-data-source>java:app/someDS</jta-data-source>
</persistence-unit>
</persistence>
Some more examples:
http://jdevelopment.nl/sample-crud-app-with-jsf-and-richfaces
http://arjan-tijms.omnifaces.org/2011/08/minimal-3-tier-java-ee-app-without-any.html