Hi Carl,

Depends on the persistance. If you choose container managed, then you'd
need to define ejb-relationships in the deployment descriptors. If bean
managed, then your code/app will be the one managing the relationships.
Consider the bean as a table in your database, and those references
you're talking about as foreign keys. The container needs to know about
the relations if it has to manage 'em.

There is plenty of documentation available on the web regarding CMP/BMP
and I am sure you'd be able to decide a strategy that suits your app
easily.

-cheers,
Manish