TransactionScope with DBContext - best practices

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Hi,

I was wondering is there any difference:

Version 1:

C#

using (dbcontext = new DBContext())
{
   //read from context here
   //modify context here
   using (transactionscope = new TransactionScope())
   {
      dbcontext.SaveChanges();

      dbcontext.Database.ExecuteSQLCommand("UPDATE table...");
      transactionscope.Complete();
   }
}

Version 2:

C#

using (transactionscope = new TransactionScope())
{
   using (dbcontext = new DBContext())
   {
      //read from context here
      //modify context here
      dbcontext.SaveChanges();

      dbcontext.Database.ExecuteSQLCommand("UPDATE table...");
   }
   transactionscope.Complete();
}

Thanks

Posted 27-Sep-15 7:55am

Jacob_Zac

Updated 27-Sep-15 21:11pm

v4

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Wendelius · Accepted Answer · 2015-09-27T08:29:00

Solution 1

First thing is that the SaveChanges does not need a separate transaction since it's wrapped inside a transaction by default.

The bigger question is what other operations you do with the context. For example does the modify context mean another call to SaveChanges. If it does, then wrapping both SaveChanges calls inside a single transaction ensures that all or nothing is saved.

Another scenario would be if you use two contexts. Again it would make sense to wrap them inside a single transaction.

Posted 27-Sep-15 8:29am

Wendelius

Comments

Jacob_Zac 28-Sep-15 3:07am

By additional context updates I was thinking of using DBContext.Database.ExecuteSQLCommand and doing updates to multiple rows.

Wendelius 28-Sep-15 9:46am

That's what I suspected. In your version 1 those operations would be outside the scope of a transaction so you would not have a single unit of work.

Because of this I'd always prefer using the transaction scope as the outermost element.

Jacob_Zac 28-Sep-15 10:57am

Thank you. I don't understand why would any of those operations be outside of scope of transaction. Both SaveChanges and ExecuteSQLCommand are inside of using (transactionscope = new TranasctionScope()){} in version 1.

Wendelius 29-Sep-15 13:54pm

If all the operations are inside the transactionscope then they are part of the transaction.

Since the original code looked like this

using (dbcontext = new DBContext())
{
//read from context here
//modify context here
using (transactionscope = new TransactionScope())
{
dbcontext.SaveChanges();

//some additional context updates
transactionscope.Complete();
}

I thought that part of the modifications were done before entering the transaction. But as said if they are inside transaction, they are safe :)

Either way I'd still prefer setting the transaction on outermost level.

Jacob_Zac 29-Sep-15 15:57pm

Thank you Mika for all the info. I am sorry that my original code (the one without ExecuteSQlCommand) was not clear enough.
Basically I just wanted to be sure that by modifying context outside of transaction scope and then saving it inside of the scope would work properly. So just to be clear is that safe? Again thanks.

Wendelius 29-Sep-15 16:11pm

No worries! If all the operations that make modifications to the database are done inside a single transaction then the transaction should cover he whole unit of work.

Of course this is a subject to be tested with a real situation for example by deliberately generating errors in order to see that all the changes are rolled back properly.

Jacob_Zac 1-Oct-15 5:56am

Thank you very much. It is clear now.