First, the functionality that allows Activiti process modelers to interact with JPA entities easily from within models is fantastic and is a greatly appreciated piece of functionality within the tool.
With the above said, I've been playing around with the functionality in an effort to write JPA entities to a separate database schema (without using a Service Task and separate classes and configuration files, of course), and it doesn't appear to be possible without making significant modifications within the Activiti code base.
I'm placing this within the Activiti Explorer area of the Forum, because my hope is that I'll be able to interact with processes from within Activiti Explorer and have them update JPA entities in a separate schema while doing so.
If I'm missing something and this is possible without the significant modifications referenced above, please let me know.
-Ryan
P.S. My read is that the issue is with the transaction manager; specifically, the transaction manager needs to apply to both the Activiti schema *and* the JPA transactions, meaning they both have to be co-located in the same database schema.