Understood. The "classic" http requests you're referring to would be PortletRequests, no? The difference being that your PortletRequests are routed through the PortletContainer's command stack where your ajax requests are handled by the servlet engine, so it would make sense that the servlet doesn't have access to the portal JTA transaction. Sounds exactly like: http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4138238#... View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4204068#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...