@Transactional method called from another method doesn't obtain a transaction

In Spring, a method that is annotated with @Transactional will obtain a new transaction if there isn't one already, but I noticed that a transactional method does not obtain any transaction if it is called from a non-transactional one. Here's the code.

@Component
public class FooDao {
    private EntityManager entityManager;

    @PersistenceContext
    protected void setEntityManager(EntityManager entityManager) {
        this.entityManager = entityManager;
    }

    @Transactional
    public Object save(Object bean) {
        return this.entityManager.merge(bean);
    }

    public Object saveWrap(Object bean) {
        return save(bean);
    }
}

@Component
public class FooService {
    private FooDao fooDao;

    public void save(Object bean) {
        this.fooDao.saveWrap(bean); // doesn't work.
        this.fooDao.save(bean); // works
    }
}

saveWrap() is a regular method that calls save() which is transactional, but saveWrap() won't persist any changes.

I'm using Spring 3 and Hibernate 3. What am I doing wrong here? Thanks.

It is one of the limitations of Springs AOP. Because the dao bean is in fact a proxy when it is created by spring, it means that calling a method from within the same class will not call the advice (which is the transaction). The same goes for any other pointcut

Yes, this is expected behaviour. @Transactional tells spring to create a proxy around the object. The proxy intercepts calls to the object from other objects. The proxy does not intercept calls within the object.

If you want to make this work, add @Transactional on the method that is invoked from "outside".