Transaction Processing
Although the databases supported by ODBC differ, ODBC provides a standard API for controlling transactions and setting isolation levels. The DB Access Module for ODBC maps its transaction control and isolation level methods to the corresponding ODBC methods. These methods are described in the following two sections.
Setting Isolation Levels
You can use the
isolation() method of
RWDBConnection to set the isolation level of the connection. Table 5 shows the mapping between the argument you pass for
IsolationType, and the isolation level set by the DB Access Module for ODBC, using the
SQLSetConnectAttr() call:
Table 5 – Setting the isolation level
RWDBConnection:: IsolationType | ODBC Isolation Level |
Unknown | SQL_TXN_READ_UNCOMMITTED |
ANSILevel1 | SQL_TXN_READ_COMMITTED |
ANSILevel2 | SQL_TXN_REPEATABLE_READ |
ANSILevel3 | SQL_TXN_SERIALIZABLE |
Note that not all ODBC drivers support the notion of isolation levels, and those that support isolation levels do not necessarily support all isolation levels. Special care should be taken when setting isolation levels, as this could affect all users of a server.
To determine the current isolation level, call RWDBConnection::isolation() without an argument.
Using Transaction Control Methods
You can explicitly control transactions through the following methods:
RWDBConnection::beginTransaction()
RWDBConnection::rollbackTransaction()
RWDBConnection::commitTransaction()
These methods have straightforward implementations that correspond to the following ODBC functions:
SQLSetConnectAttr(SQLHDBC, SQL_ATTR_AUTOCOMMIT, SQL_AUTOCOMMIT_OFF, 0)
SQLEndTran(SQL_HANDLE_DBC, SQLHDBC, SQL_ROLLBACK)
SQLSetConnectAttr(SQLHDBC, SQL_ATTR_AUTOCOMMIT,
SQL_AUTOCOMMIT_ON, 0)
An application can add the DB Interface Module transaction methods to its code to take explicit control of its transaction blocks. The following code demonstrates how these methods can be used to commit or to rollback transactions:
// Assume we have a table myTable(c int) with no rows in it.
RWDBInserter ins = myTable.inserter();
cn1.beginTransaction(); // Begin transaction
(ins << 1).execute(cn1); // First insertion
...
cn1.commitTransaction(); // Save first insertion
cn1.beginTransaction(); // Begin another transaction
(ins << 2).execute(cn1); // Second insertion
(ins << 3).execute(cn1); // Third insertion
cn1.rollbackTransaction(); // Rollback transaction erasing
// second and third insertions
// The above program results in myTable holding one row of data.
// Its value is 1.
NOTE >> Note that ODBC does not support nested transactions and savepoint features.
Attempting to create a nested transaction generates a server error. Attempting to use the savepoint features of the DB Interface Module API generates the error RWDBStatus::notSupported for the connection that tried.