My goal is that while I am processing my files, to also add them in a persistent H2 instance with their current status: “NEW” during reading, “PROCESSING” in the ItemProcessor, and “COMPLETED” in the ItemWriter. When I initialize the rows inside the ItemReader, I can query and verify their addition using a print statement in Java, by finding them inside the repository using their names. However, in the ItemProcessor step, when I attempt to do the same, I get an error indicating that there is no such object in the database. I understand this issue is related to the way transactions are handled in Spring Batch. Shouldn’t it flush the session after the write step, rather than between steps?

@Override
public synchronized FileEntry read() throws IOException {
    if (fileIterator.hasNext()) {
        FileEntry fileEntry = fileIterator.next();

        fileEntry.setBatchName(currentBatchName);
        fileEntry.setContent(fileSystemService.readFile(inboundDirectory + "/" + currentBatchName + "/" + fileEntry.getName()));

        String metaDataFile = fileEntry.getName().replace(".pdf", ".xml");
        fileEntry.setMetaData(fileSystemService.readFile(inboundDirectory + "/" + currentBatchName + "/" + metaDataFile));

        batchFileService.save(new BatchFile(fileEntry.getName(), currentBatchName));

        System.out.println(batchFileService.findByName(fileEntry.getName()));  //here it does not return null

        return fileEntry;
    }
    return null;
}

Here in the processor, I get that BatchFile is null

BatchFile batchFile = batchFileService.findByName(fileEntry.getName());
batchFile.setStatus("PROCESSING");
batchFileService.save(batchFile);

My BatchFile entry

package com.pgi.efsa.batch.sign.model;

import jakarta.persistence.*;
import lombok.Data;
import lombok.NoArgsConstructor;

@Entity
@Data
@NoArgsConstructor
@Table(name="BATCH_FILES")
public class BatchFile {
    @Id
    @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY)
    private Long id;

    private String name;
    private String status;

    private String batchName;
    public BatchFile(String name, String batchName) {
        this.name = name;
        this.batchName = batchName;
        this.status = "NEW";
    }
}

The service

package com.pgi.efsa.batch.sign.service;

import com.pgi.efsa.batch.sign.model.BatchFile;
import com.pgi.efsa.batch.sign.repository.BatchFileRepository;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Propagation;
import org.springframework.transaction.annotation.Transactional;

@Component
public class BatchFileService {
    @Autowired
    private BatchFileRepository batchFileRepository;

    @Transactional
    public BatchFile findByName(String name) {
        return batchFileRepository.findByName(name);
    }

    @Transactional
    public long save(BatchFile batchFile) {
        return batchFileRepository.save(batchFile).getId();
    }
}