Why do I have to evict my entity from the EclipseLink shared cache before querying with an entity graph will load my lazy properties? - jpa

Question

Before updating an entity in my Jakarta EE application running on GlassFish 5.1.0 with EclipseLink 2.7.4 and Derby 10.14.2.0, I compare the updated entity to the saved entity and document the changes. I noticed recently that my compare code was not working with #OneToMany relationship properties and #ElementCollection properties, and I tracked the problem to Lazy loading of the #OneToMany and #ElementCollection properties. I was able to resolve the using the fetch attribute as follows:
Fetch Eager Entity
#Entity
public class Container implements Serializable {
#OneToMany(mappedBy = "container", fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
private List<AssetSerial> assets;
#ElementCollection (fetch = FetchType.EAGER)
private List<Reference> references;
I wasn't entirely happy with this solution, because I assumed that the developers defaulted these relationship types to lazy loading for a purpose, so I continued researching and was excited to find many references to JPA Entity Graphs. I immediately create the following code to force EclipseLink to initialize my lazy loading properties before documenting the entity changes.
Entity Graph Entity
#Entity
#XmlRootElement
#XmlAccessorType(XmlAccessType.FIELD)
#NamedEntityGraph(
name = "Container.eager",
attributeNodes = {
#NamedAttributeNode("assets"),
#NamedAttributeNode("references") })
public class Container implements Serializable {
Entity Manager Initialization
#PersistenceContext(unitName = "MYPU")
private EntityManager em;
Find Method that only Works once per Entity
Map<String, Object> props = new HashMap<String, Object>();
props.put("javax.persistence.loadgraph", em.getEntityGraph("Container.eager"));
Container managedContainer = em.find(Container.class, updatedContainer.getId(), props);
PersistenceUnitUtil tester = em.getEntityManagerFactory().getPersistenceUnitUtil();
logger.debug("Assets: {}", tester.isLoaded(managedContainer, "assets"));
logger.debug("References: {}", tester.isLoaded(managedContainer, "references"));
Unfortunately, the isLoaded test methods only return true the first time I call the find method on a specific entity. The second and subsequent times isLoaded returns false. I struggled with this issue for many hours and determined that this issue was that the EclipseLink shared cache was not honoring the entity graph hint I was passing to the find method. I solved the problem by evicting the entity from the cache immediately before calling the find as shown below.
Find Method that Works
em.getEntityManagerFactory().getCache().evict(Container.class, updatedContainer.getId());
Map<String, Object> props = new HashMap<String, Object>();
props.put("javax.persistence.loadgraph", em.getEntityGraph("Container.eager"));
Container managedContainer = em.find(Container.class, updatedContainer.getId(), props);
PersistenceUnitUtil tester = em.getEntityManagerFactory().getPersistenceUnitUtil();
logger.debug("Assets: {}", tester.isLoaded(managedContainer, "assets"));
logger.debug("References: {}", tester.isLoaded(managedContainer, "references"));
Now the isLoaded test always returns true, and I'm able to document all the changed in the updated entity.
In summary, I have the following questions:
Why is EclipseLink not honoring my entity graph?
Am I going to encountering problems manually evicting my entity from the cache?
Is there a better way to force EclipseLink to initialize my lazy loading properties?