Spring Batch, JpaRepository and Rollback - spring-data-jpa

Question

I have a Spring Batch application(Spring Boot 2.3.5.RELEASE) that uses a JpaRepository to insert some custom log messages into a database as Spring Batch is processing. This is separate from the out of the box Spring Batch tables. Seems that when I throw an exception from my ItemProcessorAdapter, it is caught by the ItemProcessListener onProcessError() method. In this method I am performing a JpaRepository save() and flush(). No errors are logged, but once I leave this method the JpaRepository does a rollback.
Is this normal behavior? How can I get around it?
When using JpaRepository, is there a way to set a #Transactional(noRollbackFor = {xxxException.class})? I tried this and it seemed to have no effect.
Sample code snippet is below.
#Configuration
public class BatchJobConfiguration {
//Omitted for clarity....
#Bean
#StepScope
public CompositeItemProcessor<Decision,Decision> itemProcessor() {
CompositeItemProcessor<Decision,Decision> itemProcessor = new CompositeItemProcessor<>();
itemProcessor.setDelegates(Arrays.asList(
decisionValidatingItemProcessor(),
myItemProcessor(null)
));
return itemProcessor;
} // end itemProcessor()
#Bean
public BeanValidatingItemProcessor<Decision> decisionValidatingItemProcessor() {
BeanValidatingItemProcessor<Decision> beanValidatingItemProcessor = new BeanValidatingItemProcessor<>();
beanValidatingItemProcessor.setFilter(true);
return beanValidatingItemProcessor;
} // end decisionValidatingItemProcessor()
#Bean
public ItemProcessorAdapter<Decision,Decision> myItemProcessor(DecisionProcessingService service) {
ItemProcessorAdapter<Decision,Decision> adapter = new ItemProcessorAdapter<>();
adapter.setTargetObject(service);
adapter.setTargetMethod("processDecision");
return adapter;
}
#Bean
#StepScope
public DecisionItemProcessListener decisionItemProcessListener() {
return new DecisionItemProcessListener(mpJpaRepository);
}
}
#Service
public class DecisionProcessingService {
public Decision processDecision(Decision decision) throws BatchException {
....
throw new BatchException("An error occurred");
}
}
public class DecisionItemProcessListener implements ItemProcessListener<Decision,Decision> {
private MyJpaRepository mpJpaRepository;
public DecisionItemProcessListener(MyJpaRepository mpJpaRepository) {
this.mpJpaRepository = mpJpaRepository;
}
....
#Override
public void onProcessError(Decision decision, Exception e) {
MyEntityObject obj = MyEntityObject.builder()
.msg(e.getMessage())
.build();
mpJpaRepository.save(obj);
mpJpaRepository.flush();
// after this, the insert above is rolled back.
} // end onProcessError()
}

Answer 1

The callback you are using here ItemProcessListener#onProcessError is called with-in a transaction (driven by Spring Batch) that is going to be rolled-back due to the exception thrown by the item processor.
If you want to save data in that method, you need to use a new transaction (use the REQUIRES_NEW propagation).
EDIT: I shared a minimal complete example here: https://github.com/benas/spring-batch-lab/tree/master/issues/so64913980.