I assume you are using CMP (Container Managed Persistence), right? With
CMP, there's no need to have instance variables for CMR (Container
Managed Relationships) fields. Instead, you'd use abstract getters and
setters and the local interface.

public interface FarmLocal extends EJBLocalObject {
 public void setFruit(FruitLocal f);
 public FruitLocal getFruit();
}

public class FarmEJB implements EntityBean {
 public abstract void setFruit(FruitLocal f);
 public abstract FruitLocal getFruit();
}

Johann

"In JBoss, EJBs thus are a robust data cache for the web layers. A
typical web application will use servlet/JSP and your favorite portal
application to access the EJBs. Since EJBs carry their own optimized
caches, we would think that we can work at in-memory speed throughout
our stack. Unfortunately, by specification, the EJBs are remote and
require the usage of the pass by copy semantic. Serialization is back in
full force even as the web layer communicates directly with the EJB
container (Tomcat in JBoss is optimized in that way). The specification
deals with this in a very “spec heavy” way that requires you to use
local interfaces to achieve a very simple result. This is a clear case
of the spec gone wild, looping onto its own logic and patching
spec-created problems by adding yet another intrusive layer of
complexity in the application design. Local interfaces are a
“spec patch” not a first class citizen. In JBoss, we optimize away this
RPC layer, transparently and automatically to the EJB programmer."

from: http://www.jboss.org/modules/html/blue.pdf

Don't know how this is handled by other products ...

Marcus

[2nd try]

"In JBoss, EJBs thus are a robust data cache for the web layers. A
typical web application will use servlet/JSP and your favorite portal
application to access the EJBs. Since EJBs carry their own optimized
caches, we would think that we can work at in-memory speed throughout
our stack. Unfortunately, by specification, the EJBs are remote and
require the usage of the pass by copy semantic. Serialization is back in
full force even as the web layer communicates directly with the EJB
container (Tomcat in JBoss is optimized in that way). The specification
deals with this in a very “spec heavy” way that requires you to use
local interfaces to achieve a very simple result. This is a clear case
of the spec gone wild, looping onto its own logic and patching
spec-created problems by adding yet another intrusive layer of
complexity in the application design. Local interfaces are a
“spec patch” not a first class citizen. In JBoss, we optimize away this
RPC layer, transparently and automatically to the EJB programmer."

from: http://www.jboss.org/modules/html/blue.pdf

Don't know how this is handled by other products ...

Marcus