EJB Transactions

Session 5

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India

 Think Spot

Is your transaction
safe?

How will you handle this situation? Let’s say

you have two different transactions running,
hitting the same database. You don’t want the
effect of one transaction to corrupt the state of
another transaction.

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India

 Road
Map

–
What is Transaction ?
–
ACID Properties of Transaction
–
EJB Transactions
–
Container Managed Transaction Setup
–
Forcing Rollback
–
How Transaction React to System/Application
Exceptions

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 What is Transaction?

•
A transaction is a mechanism to handle
groups of operations as though they were
one

•
In a transaction, either all operations occur
or none at all.

•
Operations involved in a transaction may
rely on many different servers and
databases.

Transaction Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 ACID Properties of Transaction

•
A transaction is formally defined by the set
of properties known by the acronym ACID

•
The acronym of ACID stands for:
•
Atomic
•
Consistent
•
Isloated
•
Durable

Transaction Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 EJB Transactions


A transactions can be determined:
By a client around one or more method invocations
−

By the container around each method invocations

−

By the bean in a single method

−

This is an example of a
Clien client
t demarcated
transaction. Notice that
tx1.begin(); the transaction can
span one or more
EJBs, one or more
EJB1.method();
methods, and one
or more databases.
EJB2.method();
tx1.commit();
Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min
 The <transaction-type> Tag


The <transaction-type> tag:
−
Specifies whether a bean uses container or bean managed
transactions
Used only with <session> or <message-driven>
−

(entity EJBs always use container managed

transactions)
Can be either Bean or Container
−

Examples:

<enterprise-beans>
<sessions>
<ejb-name>JspSession</ejb-name>
...
<transaction-type>Container</transaction-type>
</session>
Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min
 Container-Managed Transactions

CMT
Are started and stopped by the container before and after a


method invocations

Is configured in the deployment descriptor

Is mandatory for entity EJBs.

Pre - invocation Server

This is a ●
Start TX 2
scenario ●
Check Security
where the ●
DB Load

container ●
Etc. 3
starts a new
invoke()
invoke()
Component
transaction
1 From
for a single
Client Post - invocation4
method call. Container ●
DB Store
●
Commit / Rollback TX
●
Etc.

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 The <container-transaction> Tag

•
The <Container-transaction> tag declares how
container-managed transactions should work for one
or more methods.

<container-transaction> Example:
...
</ enterprise-beans>
<assembly-descriptors>
<container-transactions>
<method>
<ejb-name>JspSession</ejb-name>
<method-name>*</method-name>
</method>
<trans-attribute>Required</trans-attribute>
</container-transaction>
. . . </assembly-descriptor>

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 The Six Values of <trans-attributes>

•
The <trans-attribute>tag can have six values
Never
−

Mandatory
−

NotSupported
− This is the
Supports
− default,
Required
−
when
transaction
RequiresNew
−

attributes are
not specified

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Never

•
Never specifies that the EJB must never be invoked within the
context of a transactions
Active
Transaction
Scenario 1 (Client TX): No Active
Transaction EJ
Client 1 – begin Contai B
2 – method ner
Remote Exception

Scenario 2 (No Client

TX): Contai EJ
Client 1 – method ner 1 – method
B

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Mandatory

•
Mandatory transactions require the client to pass a global
transaction to the EJB
Active
Transaction
Scenario 1 (Client TX): No Active
Transaction EJ
Client 1 – begin Contai method B
2 – method ner
3–
Commit

Scenario 2 (No Client

TX): Contai EJ
Client method B
ner

Transaction
Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India
Required Exception 2min
 NotSupported

•
NotSupported cause client transaction to be suspended during
the EJB's execution.
Active
Transaction
Scenario 1 (Client TX): No Active
Transaction EJ
Client 1 – begin Contai method B
2 – method ner
3–
Commit

Scenario 2 (No Client

TX): Contai EJ
Client method method B
ner

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Supports

•
Supports implies that the EJB will be included in any client-
started transactions.
Active
Transaction
Scenario 1 (Client TX): No Active
Transaction EJ
Client 1 – begin Contai method B
2 – method ner
3–
Commit

Scenario 2 (No Client

TX): Contai EJ
Client method method B
ner

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Required

•
Required transactions force the EJB to be executed within a
transaction started either by the client or the container
Active
Transaction
Scenario 1 (Client TX): No Active
Transaction EJ
Client 1 – begin Contai method B
2 – method ner
3–
Commit

Scenario 2 (No Client

TX): Contai 1 – begin EJ
Client method B
ner 2 – method
3–
Commit
Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min
 RequiresNew

•
RequiresNew transactions force the EJB to execute within a new
transaction that can only be started the container
Active
Transaction
No Active
Scenario 1 (Client TX): Transaction
New EJ
Client 1 – begin Contai Transaction B
method
2 – method ner
3–
Commit

Scenario 2 (No Client

TX): Contai 1 – begin EJ
Client method B
ner 2 – method
3–
Commit
Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min
 A CMT Example

ejb-jar.xml Snippet:
<enterprise-beans>
<session>
<ejb-name> AnEJB</ejb-name>
...
<transaction – type>Containers</transaction – type>
</session>
</enterprise-bean>
...
<assembly-descriptor>
<container – transaction>
<method>
<ejb-name>AnEJB</ejb-name>
<method-name>*</method-name>
</method>
<trans-attribute>Required</trans-attribute>
</container-transaction>
</assembly-descriptor>
TRansactioins Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min
 Puzzle Corner

Which transaction attributes can cause an in-progress

transaction to be suspended?

NotSupported and RequiresNew

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Transaction isolation level

•
The transaction isolation level controls the behavior of a
transaction, by balancing:
The integrity of the data vs
−

The concurrent access speed

−

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Integrity Problem Scenarios

•
A Dirty Read happens when reading a row that was modified by
someone else (and that person did not commit yet).

•
A Non-repeatable Read happens when reading a new committed
value while in the middle of a transaction (i.e. The data change
during processing)

•
A Phantom Row happens when reading a row that was deleted by
someone else ( and that person did not commit yet)

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Per-Method Isolation Level
•
For CMT, transaction isolation levels can be set at the method
level.
•
Four levels are available:
TRANSACTION_READ_UNCOMMITTED,
TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED,
TRANSACTION_REPEATABLE_READ,
TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE
To Set Specific Isolation Level to a Method in weblogic-ejb-jar.xml:
<transaction-isolation><!--last element of this file -->
<isolation-
level>TRANSACTION_READ_UNCOMMITTED</isolation-level>
<method> <ejb-name>dogEJB</ejb-name>
<method-name>*</method-name></method>
</transaction-isolation>
<!-- More transaction-isolation tags -->
Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min
 TRANSACTION_READ_UNCOMMITTED

•
TRANSACTION_READ_UNCOMMITTED

Enables reading in modified data even if that data was not committed
−

yet

Is the most permissive transaction isloation level

−

Is the fastest transaction isolation level

−

Allows dirty reads, phantom rows and non-repeatable reads.

−

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED

•
TRANSACTION_READ_COMMITTED

Enables reading in modified data if it has been committed

−

Does NOT allow dirty reads

−

Allows phantom rows and non-repeatable reads

−

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 TRANSACTION_REPEATABLE_READ

•
TRANSACTION_REPEATABLE_READ
−
Enables reading in modified data if it has been committed, but with the
guarantee that the data will not change again
−
Does NOT allow dirty reads and non-repeatable reads
−
Allows phantom rows

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE

•
TRANSACTION_SERIALIZABLE
−
Locks data so that only 1 transaction at a time can access it: transactions
are done in 'series'
−
Is the most restrictive transaction isolation level, resulting in the highest
integrity
−
Is the slowest transaction isolation level
−
Does NOT allow dirty reads, phantom rows and non-repeatable reads.

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Best Practices – Design Considerations

•
If possible, always use a CMT
•
Think about transaction granularity when designing
EJBs:
Transaction configuration can have a big impact on
−

performance.

Too many fine-grain transactions generate excessive traffic

−

to transaction and resource managers.

Too many coarse – grain transactions may block other

−

clients accessing the same resources.

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Best Practices – Design Considerations

−
Try to limit a web request to a single transaction
−
Do not have transactions span user input
−
Try creating a facade session bean that wraps multiple EJB
method invocations to avoid creating multiple transactions
−
Use Required on methods that update, create, delete or
modify databases
−
Use Supports or Not Supported on methods that perform get
or read-only operations.

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Recap

• Mark a method with one of six transaction attributes :

●
Required
●
RequiresNew
●
Mandatory
●
Supports
●
Notsupported
●
Never

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Recap

• When the method is called, the container uses the attributes to do one of
the five things:
●
Run the method in the caller’s transaction. OR
●
Suspends the caller’s transaction and Start a new transaction. OR
●
Suspend the caller’s transaction and run the method without a
transaction. OR
●
Throw an exception because the caller does not have a transaction.

Transactions Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min

 Q&A

JavaException Handling
Collections Framework Grey Matter, Sella Synergy India 2min