Why not to use Spring's OpenEntityManagerInViewFilter

Question

As you said, the OpenSessionInView filter is very convenient in web applications. Regarding the limitations you mentioned:

1) Loading several lazy associations will result in multiple database transactions, a possible hit on performance.

Yes, going to the DB often might lead to performance problems. Ideally you want to fetch all the data you need in one trip. Consider using Hibernate join-fetch for this. But fetching too much data from the DB will also be slow. The rule of thumb I use is to use join fetching if the data is needed every time I paint the view; if the data is not needed in most cases, I let Hibernate lazy fetch it when I need it - the threadlocal open session helps then.

2) The root object and its lazy associations are loaded in different database transactions, so the data may possibly be stale (e.g. root loaded by thread 1, root associations updated by thread 2, root associations loaded by thread 1).

Imagine writing this application in JDBC - if the application's consistency requirements demand that the root and leaves both should be loaded in the same txn, use join fetching. If not, which is often the case, lazy fetching won't lead to any consistency problems.

IMHO, the more important disadvantage with OpenSessionInView is when you want your service layer to be reused in a non-web context. From your description, you don't seem to have that problem.

The main argument I've heard against OpenSessionInView and lazy loading is an excess of transactions and a negative impact on performance. It is extremely convenient to use on an app with low usage requirements, but on a high-scale app, I'd recommend using the old fashioned fully-populated DTOs (data-transfer objects).

One of the major issues I've encounter with OpenSessionInViewFilter is using AJAX apps and javascript. If you are using javascript to render grids, or certain UI components; there is a lazy-load (considering you turn on the filter); and an exception is thrown. Your application UI rendering goes for a toss. The data might never show up, the page starts throwing weird javascript exceptions, for which you need to write additional js code to handle. And you are exposing the db exceptions to users (not a good idea).

In a regular application these exceptions can be captured and a valid user exception can be thrown.

If your application is a multi layered architecture ( view layer deployed on different JVM and service layer will be deployed on different VM), then keep the session in open state doesn't make sense. I would see not use any OpenSessionViewFilter if your service layer independent of you app layer.