| Parent parent = new Parent(); | Child child = new Child(); | Car car = new Car(); | parent.setCar(car); | parent.add(child); | parent.persist(parent); | Assuming car and child are entities with no references to parent and Parent is: | @Entity | public class Parent { | | @ManyToOne(cascade=PERSIST) | private Car car; | @OneToMany(cascade=PERSIST) | private List<Child> children; | | ... | // Getters and setters | } | If you had bi-directional relationships you might want | entityManager.flush(); | entityManager.refresh(parent); | as well. Nullifying view objects should work fine (empty fields) (but you need to make sure the new version is outjected which requires a reasonable understanding of the difference between variables in the component and context variables). Regarding relationships - this is really a Hibernate/EJB3 JPA issue. The hibernate unit tests are good for understanding the sematics involved. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3960960#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...