Spring Data JPA + Hibernate : catch block inside a Transactional method is never reached

Question

In our Spring Data JPA + Hibernate application, there are various methods having multiple JPA operations inside the same transaction - below is the code/configuration on one of the spring service methods.

@Transactional(rollbackFor=MyAppException.class)
public void updateCustomerprofile(String customerKey) throws MyAppException{
    try{
    CustomerId customerIdObj = customerIdRepository.findOne(customerKey);
    customerIdObj.setCreatedUser("<loggedin-user>");
     // more logic here
    customerIdObj = customerIdRepository.save(customerIdObj);
    }catch(DataAccessException dae){
        //this catch block is never reached even if there is an exception while saving because of JPA flusheing at the end of transaction
        throw new MyAppException(dae);
    }

}

It's been observed that the execution will never reach the catch block even if there is an exception thrown while saving the record - and it is because JPA flushes at the end of the transaction.

Where exactly should this catch block be placed?

Should we be catching DataAcccessException on the web layer (bean)?

If so, are we not taking the datalayer dependencies on to web layer?

If I have to wrap DataAccessException into my application specific exception, how do I do it?

Please suggest.

The transaction is committed (and thus fluxed) after the method has finished. The transaction is around your method not inside your method, so to speak. If you want to do some exception conversion use some AOP (after-throwing) that does the conversion for you. You will have to make sure that you get the ordering right but that is a matter of configuration. — M. Deinum, Jul 14 '14 at 13:30
@M. Deinum : I liked this idea to go with _AfterThrowing_ advice - Good one — aRvi, Jul 14 '14 at 15:11
I added global exception handler using _@AfterThrowing_ advice from Spring AOP and it works fine - But I want to re-throw the exception with an error message specific to each service method,based on the logic it has in it. I am now achieving it by specifying the error message text as below using a custom annotation and read it from aspect code. Do you have a better way to suggest? `@ExceptionText("Error while adding customer profile to customer master data") @Transactional(rollbackFor=MyAppException.class) public void updateCustomerprofile(String customerKey) throws MyAppException{ .. }` — aRvi, Jul 18 '14 at 08:34

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 23 '17 at 12:23

The problem here is that the exception is not thrown within your code, but when the container commits the transaction (see also this answer). To avoid using bean-managed transactions, you can:

Synchronize the persistence context via EntityManager.flush(),
Use an EJB interceptor with the @AroundInvoke annotation which begins, commits and rollbacks the transaction (similar approach to BMT), or
Wrap the code which is supposed to throw the exception in a method with @TransactionAttribute(REQUIRES_NEW).

See also this thread, where some details about the REQUIRES_NEW approach are further explained.

Ralph · Answer 2 · 2014-07-14T13:46:30.447

add a entityManager.flush() inside the catch block, or move the catch block around the @Transactional annotated method.

The reason is that often the entity manager is free to decide when it write the data into the database (that is the point when the exception occurs). Typically the writing to the database is done

before a "Select" query,
when explicit invoke entityManager.flush() or
when submitting a transaction.

So the solution is: that you make sure that the entity manager writes the (illegal) data to the database within your try-block.

Spring Data JPA + Hibernate : catch block inside a Transactional method is never reached

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