How to fix StaleObjectStateException with JPA and Hibernate

Question

Controller Logic:

def updateObject() {

    Object o = Object.get(params.id as Long)

    o.otherObjects.clear()

    objectDataService.saveObject(o.id)

    OtherObject newObject = new OtherObject;

    o.addToOtherObjects(newObject)

    objectDataService.saveObject(o.id)

}

ServiceLogic

def saveObject(long profileId) {
    o.save(flush:true)
}

what happens

in 90% of the cases this will just work.

problems

ERROR errors.GrailsExceptionResolver  - StaleObjectStateException occurred when processing request: [GET] /controller/updateObject - parameters:
stuff[]: data
Row was updated or deleted by another transaction (or unsaved-value mapping was incorrect) : [com.path.Object#1]. 
Stacktrace follows:
Message: Row was updated or deleted by another transaction (or unsaved-value mapping was incorrect) : [com.path.Object#1]

i have read through related questions and found the merge call you see above. it solved about 50% of the cases but not all.

Answer 1

For us a few different approaches finally solved the StaleObjectException from occuring regularly:

object = object.refresh()

refreshing objects after retrieving them solved most of our StaleObjectExceptions. Especially in cases where there was a possibility that someone would have worked on the same object from somewhere else and changed some of its members (most problems arrived with collection members).

Overall Project stability:

wrongly linked resources

we had a 404 on a specific resource file we did not actually need and therefore ignored it for some time. turns out that the missing file would cause the session to be kept open - thus fabricating StaleObjects left and right.

Therefore as a hint to anyone facing more than the usual (some StaleObjects might always occur - see above answers) StaleObjectExceptions: Make sure that all resources are linked correctly and your developer tools (Chrome F12) do not report any missing files.