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Transaction Aware Table-adapters in .NET 2.0

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5 Dec 2007CPOL3 min read 85.2K   393   30   31
A quick and elegant way to add transaction capabilities to your table-adapters

Introduction

Much has been said about missing support for atomic transactions in .NET 2.0 when using table adapters that get generated by the dataset designer. This article provides a ready-to-use base-class that by injecting it into a table-adapter's inheritance line equips it with transaction capabilities.

Discussion of Approaches

One way to get around the aforementioned limitations is to configure your server to have DTC (Distributed Transaction Coordination) enabled. In that case, you can use TransactionScope instances guarding actions like modifications through table adapters. However, if you don't want to or cannot change the server's configuration, TransactionScope is not an option.

Others on The Code Project and other sites have explained how to enable transactions for table adapters. The basic idea always is to attach an SqlTransaction to all commands of a table-adapter. If multiple table-adapters are used, share the same transaction across all commands of all adapters. What makes this a little difficult is that a generated table-adapter keeps its SqlDataAdapter property Adapter private, but transaction code requires modifying the property.

There are several approaches to solve this issue. For instance Avoiding DTC with Typed DataSets and SQL Server 2000 suggests adding transaction code in the form of partial classes. As the partial extension lives in the same scope as the original table-adapter, it can also access its private properties. The major disadvantage here is that partial classes have to be created for each generated table adapter.

A much more elegant approach is mentioned in this post (unfortunately in German): use reflection to get your hands at those properties. The article also mentions a small detail I found very interesting: when editing a table-adapter in designer-mode, you are actually able to change its base class! So instead of the default base-class Component you can fill in your own base-class. If you now provide such a base-class that is derived from Component and implements the transaction stuff through reflection, usage becomes simple and elegant. And this is exactly what I did: putting together such a handy base-class called TransactionSupport.

Using the Code

To take advantage of the base class is very simple: First download the class source code and drop it into your project. Then, for all tables in your dataset that require transaction support, change the table adapter's base-class like this:

  1. Select the table-adapter (not the table) in the dataset designer, such that it becomes visible in the properties view.

    Screenshot - ta-properties.png

  2. Change the property BaseClass from System.ComponentModel.Component to the class BizWiz.TransactionSupport I provided like is shown in the screenshot.

And that's it. Do this for each table adapter required. Then you can write code of the following pattern:

C#
// begin transaction and share it among all participating table-adapters:
customerTableAdapter.BeginTransaction();
orderTableAdapter.Transaction = customerTableAdapter.Transaction;

// now start the modifications:
try
{
    // do modifications here, throw exceptions if things go wrong...
    // ...

    // ok, all is well, commit transaction:
    customerTableAdapter.CommitTransaction();
}
catch( Exception e )
{
    // if anything went wrong, roll-back transaction
    customerTableAdapter.RollbackTransaction();
}

You can choose any of the participating table-adapters to perform commit or rollback, but I make it good practice to have one dedicated transaction master, that is doing it all: BeginTransaction(), CommitTransaction()and RollbackTransaction().

History

Date Comment
2007-SEP-15Uploaded modified version of base that looks for Connection property of generated table adapters in public as well as non-public scope, as this seems to differ throughout installations.

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under The Code Project Open License (CPOL)


Written By
Software Developer (Senior) BMW AG
Germany Germany
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Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralNice article Pin
AJMAL SHAHZAD13-Jul-12 20:13
AJMAL SHAHZAD13-Jul-12 20:13 
GeneralNice article Pin
AJMAL SHAHZAD13-Jul-12 20:12
AJMAL SHAHZAD13-Jul-12 20:12 
GeneralTransaction property returning null Pin
SCourt.NET24-Aug-10 10:19
SCourt.NET24-Aug-10 10:19 
GeneralRe: Transaction property returning null Pin
SCourt.NET24-Aug-10 10:28
SCourt.NET24-Aug-10 10:28 
GeneralThank you very much!!! Pin
Houman Masnavi ,Phd10-Jun-10 3:49
Houman Masnavi ,Phd10-Jun-10 3:49 
GeneralFabulous work.... Pin
madhuraj00119-May-10 2:45
madhuraj00119-May-10 2:45 
GeneralHi all, Pin
bruce2willis23-Jun-09 7:52
bruce2willis23-Jun-09 7:52 
GeneralThank You Pin
George_Botros19-Mar-09 5:52
George_Botros19-Mar-09 5:52 
GeneralIf anyone is looking for a VB version of this... Pin
egbdfine29-Jan-09 7:03
egbdfine29-Jan-09 7:03 
GeneralRe: If anyone is looking for a VB version of this... Pin
cbankovic18-Aug-10 5:21
cbankovic18-Aug-10 5:21 
Generalweird ... Pin
tomtom198011-Nov-08 2:30
tomtom198011-Nov-08 2:30 
GeneralRe: weird ... Pin
Mike Pagel11-Nov-08 2:53
Mike Pagel11-Nov-08 2:53 
QuestionHelp please on MySql + C# Pin
Seuss18-Sep-08 1:58
Seuss18-Sep-08 1:58 
AnswerRe: Help please on MySql + C# Pin
Tim@Kin15-Dec-08 21:57
Tim@Kin15-Dec-08 21:57 
QuestionHelp please on MySQL and C# Pin
Seuss18-Sep-08 0:01
Seuss18-Sep-08 0:01 
AnswerRe: Help please on MySQL and C# Pin
Mike Pagel18-Sep-08 0:34
Mike Pagel18-Sep-08 0:34 
QuestionRe: Help please on MySQL and C# Pin
Seuss18-Sep-08 1:07
Seuss18-Sep-08 1:07 
GeneralWorks beautifully Pin
NeedTechHelp13-Aug-08 11:44
NeedTechHelp13-Aug-08 11:44 
Generalpublic vs. private scope on connection Pin
Josh Ryon15-Jul-08 10:31
Josh Ryon15-Jul-08 10:31 
GeneralTransaction with strongly typed dataset and multiple table adapters Pin
Anil Pandya6-Jan-08 23:43
Anil Pandya6-Jan-08 23:43 
GeneralRe: Transaction with strongly typed dataset and multiple table adapters Pin
Mike Pagel7-Jan-08 0:19
Mike Pagel7-Jan-08 0:19 
GeneralRe: Transaction with strongly typed dataset and multiple table adapters Pin
Anil Pandya7-Jan-08 17:48
Anil Pandya7-Jan-08 17:48 
GeneralConnection is Public Pin
tmv1912-Sep-07 13:21
tmv1912-Sep-07 13:21 
AnswerRe: Connection is Public [modified] Pin
Mike Pagel12-Sep-07 20:26
Mike Pagel12-Sep-07 20:26 
GeneralRe: Connection is Public Pin
tmv1913-Sep-07 5:12
tmv1913-Sep-07 5:12 

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