2. Entity Lifecycle Management
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## 2. Entity Lifecycle Management

`EntityManager`s perform several actions that affect the lifecycle state of entity instances.

    public void persist(Object entity);

Transitions new instances to managed. On the next flush or commit, the newly persisted instances will be inserted into the datastore.

For a given entity `A`, the `persist` method behaves as follows:

- If `A` is a new entity, it becomes managed.

- If `A` is an existing managed entity, it is ignored. However, the persist operation cascades as defined below.

- If `A` is a removed entity, it becomes managed.

- If `A` is a detached entity, an `IllegalArgumentException` is thrown.

- The persist operation recurses on all relation fields of `A` whose cascades include `CascadeType.PERSIST`.

This action can only be used in the context of an active transaction.

    public void remove(Object entity);

Transitions managed instances to removed. The instances will be deleted from the datastore on the next flush or commit. Accessing a removed entity has undefined results.

For a given entity `A`, the `remove` method behaves as follows:

- If `A` is a new entity, it is ignored. However, the remove operation cascades as defined below.

- If `A` is an existing managed entity, it becomes removed.

- If `A` is a removed entity, it is ignored.

- If `A` is a detached entity, an `IllegalArgumentException` is thrown.

- The remove operation recurses on all relation fields of `A` whose cascades include `CascadeType.REMOVE`.

This action can only be used in the context of an active transaction.

    public void refresh(Object entity);

Use the `refresh` action to make sure the persistent state of an instance is synchronized with the values in the datastore. `refresh` is intended for long-running optimistic transactions in which there is a danger of seeing stale data.

For a given entity `A`, the `refresh` method behaves as follows:

- If `A` is a new entity, it is ignored. However, the refresh operation cascades as defined below.

- If `A` is an existing managed entity, its state is refreshed from the datastore.

- If `A` is a removed entity, it is ignored.

- If `A` is a detached entity, an `IllegalArgumentException` is thrown.

- The refresh operation recurses on all relation fields of `A` whose cascades include `CascadeType.REFRESH`.

    public Object merge(Object entity);

A common use case for an application running in a servlet or application server is to "detach" objects from all server resources, modify them, and then "attach" them again. For example, a servlet might store persistent data in a user session between a modification based on a series of web forms. Between each form request, the web container might decide to serialize the session, requiring that the stored persistent state be disassociated from any other resources. Similarly, a client/server application might transfer persistent objects to a client via serialization, allow the client to modify their state, and then have the client return the modified data in order to be saved. This is sometimes referred to as the data transfer object or value object pattern, and it allows fine-grained manipulation of data objects without incurring the overhead of multiple remote method invocations.

JPA provides support for this pattern by automatically detaching entities when they are serialized or when a persistence context ends (see Section 3, “ Persistence Context ” for an exploration of persistence contexts). The JPA merge API re-attaches detached entities. This allows you to detach a persistent instance, modify the detached instance offline, and merge the instance back into an `EntityManager` (either the same one that detached the instance, or a new one). The changes will then be applied to the existing instance from the datastore.

A detached entity maintains its persistent identity, but cannot load additional state from the datastore. Accessing any persistent field or property that was not loaded at the time of detachment has undefined results. Also, be sure not to alter the version or identity fields of detached instances if you plan on merging them later.

The `merge` method returns a managed copy of the given detached entity. Changes made to the persistent state of the detached entity are applied to this managed instance. Because merging involves changing persistent state, you can only merge within a transaction.

If you attempt to merge an instance whose representation has changed in the datastore since detachment, the merge operation will throw an exception, or the transaction in which you perform the merge will fail on commit, just as if a normal optimistic conflict were detected.

### Note

OpenJPA offers enhancements to JPA detachment functionality, including additional options to control which fields are detached. See Section 1, “ Detach and Attach ” in the Reference Guide for details.

For a given entity `A`, the `merge` method behaves as follows:

- If `A` is a detached entity, its state is copied into existing managed instance `A'` of the same entity identity, or a new managed copy of `A` is created.

- If `A` is a new entity, a new managed entity `A'` is created and the state of `A` is copied into `A'`.

- If `A` is an existing managed entity, it is ignored. However, the merge operation still cascades as defined below.

- If `A` is a removed entity, an `IllegalArgumentException` is thrown.

- The merge operation recurses on all relation fields of `A` whose cascades include `CascadeType.MERGE`.

The following diagram illustrates the lifecycle of an entity with respect to the APIs presented in this section.

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