upgrading from Hiberante 3 to Hibernate 4 can't persist data to datatbase

Question

OK, we have an Hibernate 3 application that I am trying to update to hibernate 4. I can retrieve the data without any problem, but cannot add or update the database. I don't get any error messages, the transaction seems to work, but nothing gets changed in the database. Some help would be greatly appreciated.

Here's the config file hibernate.cfg.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-configuration PUBLIC
    "-//Hibernate/Hibernate Configuration DTD//EN"
    "http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-configuration-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-configuration>
  <session-factory>
    <property name="hibernate.dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect</property>
    <property name="hibernate.show_sql">false</property>
    <property name="hibernate.current_session_context_class">thread</property>
    <property name="hibernate.connection.datasource">jdbc/misc</property>
    <property name="hibernate.jndi.url">iiop://127.0.0.1:3700</property>
    <property name="hibernate.transaction.factory_class">org.hibernate.transaction.JTATransactionFactory</property>
    <property name="hibernate.transaction.manager_lookup_class">org.hibernate.transaction.SunONETransactionManagerLookup</property>
    <mapping resource="sponsor.hbm.xml"/>
    <mapping resource="portfolio.hbm.xml"/>
    <mapping resource="clientID.hbm.xml"/>
    <mapping resource="legacyID.hbm.xml"/>
    <mapping resource="badClient.hbm.xml"/>
    <mapping resource="language.hbm.xml"/>
  </session-factory>
</hibernate-configuration>

Here's a sam;ole map file of the table I am currently working with sponsor.hbm.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping PUBLIC
      "-//Hibernate/Hibernate Mapping DTD 3.0//EN"
          "http://www.hibernate.org/dtd/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd">
<hibernate-mapping>
  <class name="com.lingosys.hibernate.Sponsor" table="sponsor">
    <id name="companyID" type="integer">
      <generator class="assigned"/>
    </id>
    <property name="companyName" type="string"/>
    <property name="sponsorID" type="integer"/>
    <property name="sponsorName" type="string"/>
    <property name="status" type="string"/>
  </class>
</hibernate-mapping>

Here's the class for creating the session factory HibenateUtil.java:

package com.lingosys.hibernate;


import org.hibernate.SessionFactory;
import org.hibernate.boot.registry.StandardServiceRegistryBuilder;
import org.hibernate.cfg.Configuration;
import org.hibernate.service.ServiceRegistry;

/**
 * Hibernate Utility class with a convenient method to get Session Factory object.
 *
 * @author mphoenix
 */
public class HibernateUtil {
    private static final SessionFactory sessionFactory;

    static {
        try {
            // Create the SessionFactory from standard (hibernate.cfg.xml) 
            // config file.
            Configuration configuration = new Configuration();
            configuration.configure("hibernate.cfg.xml");

            ServiceRegistry serviceRegistry = new StandardServiceRegistryBuilder().applySettings(
            configuration.getProperties()).build();
            sessionFactory = configuration.buildSessionFactory(serviceRegistry);
        } catch (Throwable ex) {
            // Log the exception. 
            System.err.println("Initial SessionFactory creation failed." + ex);
            throw new ExceptionInInitializerError(ex);
        }
    }

    public static SessionFactory getSessionFactory() {
        return sessionFactory;
    }
}

Here's the dao file SponsorDAO.java:

package com.lingosys.hibernate;

import java.util.List;
import org.hibernate.Query;
import org.hibernate.Session;

/**
 *
 * @author mphoenix
 */
public class SponsorDAO {
    private Session session = null;

    public SponsorDAO() {
    }

    private void startOperation() {
        session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().openSession();
    }

    public void create(Sponsor sponsor) {
        startOperation();
        session.saveOrUpdate("Sponsor", sponsor);
        session.close();
    }


    public void update(Sponsor sponsor) {
        startOperation();
        session.update("Sponsor", sponsor);
        session.close();
    }

    public Sponsor findSponsor(int id) {
        startOperation();
        Sponsor sponsor = (Sponsor) session.get(Sponsor.class, new Integer(id));
        session.close();
        return sponsor;
    }

    public List <Sponsor> findAllSponsors() {
        List <Sponsor> sponsors = null;
        startOperation();
        Query query = session.createQuery("from Sponsor");
        sponsors = query.list();
        session.close();
        return sponsors;
    }

    public void delete(Sponsor sponsor) {
        startOperation();
        session.delete(sponsor);
        session.close();
    }

}

Here's the create transaction code:

UserTransaction tx = null;
try {
    tx = (UserTransaction)new InitialContext()
                     .lookup("java:comp/UserTransaction");
    tx.begin();
    dao.create(sponsor);
    tx.commit();
} catch (HibernateException ex) {
    try {
        tx.rollback();
    } catch (Exception ex2) {
        facesCtx.addMessage(null, new FacesMessage("Error on rollback.",
                ex2.toString()));
    }
    facesCtx.addMessage(null, new FacesMessage("Hibernate Error.",
                ex.toString()));
    return null;
} catch (Exception ex) {
    facesCtx.addMessage(null, new FacesMessage("Non-hibernate Error.",
                ex.toString()));
    return null;
}

Here's a retrieval transaction:

try {
    tx = (UserTransaction)new InitialContext()
                     .lookup("java:comp/UserTransaction");
    tx.begin();
    setSponsorItems(new ArrayList<Sponsor>());
    List<Sponsor> sponsors = dao.findAllSponsors();
    for (Sponsor aSponsor : sponsors) {
        if (companyItemsMap.get(aSponsor.getCompanyID()) != null) {
            getSponsorItems().add(aSponsor);
        }
    }
    tx.commit();
} catch (HibernateException ex) {
    try {
        tx.rollback();
    } catch (Exception ex2) {
        facesCtx.addMessage(null, new FacesMessage(ex2.toString()));
    }
    facesCtx.addMessage(null, new FacesMessage(ex.toString()));
    return false;
} catch (Exception ex) {
    facesCtx.addMessage(null, new FacesMessage(ex.toString()));
    return false;
}

And finally the object being mapped to Sponsor.java

package com.lingosys.hibernate;

import java.io.Serializable;

/**
 *
 * @author mphoenix
 */
public class Sponsor implements Serializable {
    private int companyID;
    private String companyName;
    private int sponsorID;
    private String sponsorName;
    private String status;

    public Sponsor() {
    }

    public int getCompanyID() {
        return companyID;
    }

    public void setCompanyID(int companyID) {
        this.companyID = companyID;
    }

    public String getCompanyName() {
        return companyName;
    }

    public void setCompanyName(String companyName) {
        this.companyName = companyName;
    }

    public int getSponsorID() {
        return sponsorID;
    }

    public void setSponsorID(int sponsorID) {
        this.sponsorID = sponsorID;
    }

    public String getSponsorName() {
        return sponsorName;
    }

    public void setSponsorName(String sponsorName) {
        this.sponsorName = sponsorName;
    }

    public String getStatus() {
        return status;
    }

    public void setStatus(String status) {
        this.status = status;
    }


    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object obj) {
        if (obj == null) {
            return false;
        }
        if (getClass() != obj.getClass()) {
            return false;
        }
        final Sponsor other = (Sponsor) obj;
        if (this.companyID != other.companyID) {
            return false;
        }
        return true;
    }

    @Override
    public int hashCode() {
        int hash = 5;
        hash = 97 * hash + this.companyID;
        return hash;
    }

    //DEBUG CASPERW
    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "CompanyID: "+companyID+" CompanyName: "+companyName+" SponsorID: "+sponsorID+" SponsorName: "+sponsorName+"\n";
    }
}