Enterprise JavaBeans 3.1, 6th Edition

Chapter 17. Transactions

ACID Transactions

Unfortunately, good business-object design is not enough to make EJBs useful in an industrial-strength application. The problem is not with the definition of the EJBs or the taskflow; the problem is that a good design does not, in and of itself, guarantee that a business method represents a good transaction. To understand why, we will take a closer look at what a transaction is and what criteria a transaction must meet to be considered reliable.

In business, a transaction usually involves an exchange between two parties. When you purchase an ice cream cone, you exchange money for food; when you work for a company, you exchange skill and time for money (which you use to buy more ice cream). When you are involved in these exchanges, you monitor the outcome to ensure that you aren’t “ripped off.” If you give the ice cream vendor a $20 bill, you don’t want him to drive off without giving you your change; likewise, you want to make sure that your paycheck reflects all the hours that you worked. By monitoring these commercial exchanges, you are attempting to ensure the reliability of the transactions; you are making sure that each transaction meets everyone’s expectations.

In business software, a transaction embodies the concept of a commercial exchange. A business system transaction (transaction for short) is the execution of a unit-of-work that accesses one or more shared resources, usually databases. A unit-of-work is a set of activities that ...