Spring Data JPA - Lazy Initialization Exception when accessing related entity outside transaction
I'm updating my dependencies and I'm stuck on something that should probably be simple... This might be a silly question, but I'm encountering a `LazyInitializationException` when trying to access a related entity from a `@Transactional` service method in my Spring Boot application. The issue arises specifically when I try to access a lazily-loaded collection from a parent entity after the transaction has been committed. Here’s a simplified version of my code: ```java @Entity public class User { @Id @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY) private Long id; @OneToMany(mappedBy = "user", fetch = FetchType.LAZY) private List<Order> orders; } @Entity public class Order { @Id @GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.IDENTITY) private Long id; @ManyToOne @JoinColumn(name = "user_id") private User user; } @Service public class UserService { @Autowired private UserRepository userRepository; @Transactional(readOnly = true) public User getUserWithOrders(Long userId) { return userRepository.findById(userId).orElseThrow(() -> new EntityNotFoundException("User not found")); } } ``` When I call `getUserWithOrders(userId)` and then try to access `user.getOrders()` in my controller, I get the following exception: ``` org.hibernate.LazyInitializationException: could not initialize proxy - no Session ``` I’ve tried several approaches, including: - Changing the fetch type to `EAGER` on the `orders` collection, but this leads to performance issues due to loading too much data. - Using `JOIN FETCH` in the repository query to explicitly load orders along with the user, but I want to avoid adding unnecessary complexity. Is there a clean way to handle lazy loading in this scenario without getting a `LazyInitializationException`? Or is there a recommended approach to ensure that related entities are available when needed without fetching them all at once? I'm working on a application that needs to handle this. I'd be grateful for any help. I'm working in a CentOS environment. Any advice would be much appreciated.