Orphaned Nodes in JPA with CascadeType.ALL

Despite employing JPA's CascadeType.ALL, orphaned nodes persist in the database, hindering deletion. To resolve this issue, there are several approaches depending on the persistence provider and JPA version:

Hibernate Configuration

If using Hibernate, explicitly define the CascadeType.DELETE_ORPHAN annotation in conjunction with JPA CascadeType.ALL:

@OneToMany(cascade = {CascadeType.ALL, CascadeType.DELETE_ORPHAN})
private List bikes;

JPA Solution (without Hibernate)

In the absence of Hibernate, explicitly delete child elements before removing the parent record:

1. Fetch the main row to be deleted.
2. Fetch the child elements.
3. Delete all child elements.
4. Delete the main row.
5. Close the session.

JPA 2.0

JPA 2.0 introduces the orphanRemoval attribute:

@OneToMany(mappedBy="foo", orphanRemoval=true)

By setting orphanRemoval to true, JPA will automatically delete orphaned child records when the parent entity is removed.