I'm finding with my EJB work both personal (JBoss) and work (Weblogic) that the need for support for database level automatic key generation (what MySQL calls 'autoincrement' and sybase calls 'identity' for example) in CMP 2.x is increasingly important.
JBoss seems to have reasonable support for it; however Weblogic is absolutely half-assed about it. In 6.x-8.x, they only have 'official' support for automatic key generation in Weblogic for Oracle and MS SQL Server (Although since MS SQL Server is based on Sybase ASE Source base, it IS possible to use the SQL Server method with Sybase, albeit undesirable). The 'generic' RDBMS solution Weblogic offers is sub-optimal and all in all undesirable - it requires a unique table for every CMP, which must be a one column table consisting of an int column named SEQUENCE. There is no way to change this structure, or share one key generation table across multiple CMPs.
JBoss seems to have at least a fairly reasonable support for it with their unknown-pk facility. I've gotten this to work with both MySQL and PostgreSQL and didn't find it terrible to work with. I assume it has a wider support for other DBs but haven't tried.
Before I digress too far and lose you all; I feel I should get to my point: I am finding more and more that support for DB Generated Auto Incremented ID fields is an increasingly necessary feature in CMP. I'm throwing it out there as a strong suggestion to be included in Geronimo if it hasn't already been considered. I'd be more than willing to put my elbows in the mud and work on it myself - preferably with help of course.
Barring that, where are other areas I can get involved in helping with? What pieces need code help from someone with a lot of experience on the writing EJBs side who feels ready to dive into writing the containers?
-Brendan
