just found the problem. the seam app uses the stand along mode of the bundled hsql db rather than the one I configured in hibernate.cfg.xml. it seems seam app read the peristence.xml for the url of the hibernate.cfg.xml. I am just curious: why the persistence.xml automatically configure the data source to its bundled hsqlDB while I am using another hsqldb installation? (is this a bug of the JBOSS IDE) what's the difference of functions between hibernate.cfg.xml and persistence.xml in the seam application? how and where can I define the JNDI name of the data source which required by the persistence.xml? I do appreciate any suggestion and hint. regards Jason View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=3956981#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...