For "Automatic Validation upon Lifecycle Events" (see JPA 3.6.1.2), the Validator.validate() will be called on em.flush or tx.commit. Per BVal spec 3.5, all "reachable" fields will be validated. Therefore merge, or any other em operations, has no bearing on how the validation will take place.
To control any subset of fields to be validated, use group definition and the javax.persistence.validation.group.* property to specify your customize validation scheme. Albert Lee. -- View this message in context: http://openjpa.208410.n2.nabble.com/Bean-validation-on-merge-tp7585013p7585025.html Sent from the OpenJPA Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.
