Is it possible to use @Transactional and kotlin coroutines in spring boot?

Question

I have a project on Spring boot and tried to use @Transactional and coroutines and got an error

org.springframework.dao.InvalidDataAccessApiUsageException: Executing an update/delete query; nested exception is javax.persistence.TransactionRequiredException.

Is it possible to use @Transactional and coroutines now?

override suspend fun invoke() {
    val result = withContext(Dispatchers.IO) { deactivate() }
} 

@Transactional
private suspend fun deactivate(): Int {
    //data base call 1
    //data base call 2
    // ...
}

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 30 '20 at 16:52

3

You can't start coroutines that do transactional work on a different thread during a @Transactional method call.

@Transactional leads to code being intercepted. Before and after deactivate(), the transaction-related code will be called for you. Because the coroutines could be launched on a different thread, they will be launched outside of these transaction calls.

Relevant StackOverflow topic: Spring - @Transactional - What happens in background?

answered Sep 30 '20 at 16:52

ByteWelder

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Thank you, very much. Is there some workaround if I need to use transactions and coroutines? – kirill Oct 01 '20 at 08:44
You can call a coroutine and wait for it until it is done in that function. – ByteWelder Oct 01 '20 at 09:05

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 05 '21 at 13:42

0

The reason to wrap a method in a transaction is to ensure that the method is atomic at a database level, and when there is a failure the whole transaction is reverted as if it never happened.

By breaking out of the transaction, using coroutines, you break the atomicity of the method if you do any other database actions, and when there is a failure those actions of the coroutine will not be reverted.

I hope you will be careful when using this (anti-) pattern!

answered Feb 05 '21 at 13:42

Bas

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While I would agree that Spring has complicated support for @Transactional and coroutines (it's getting better), using coroutines for transactional operations is NOT an anti-pattern. So long as the same database connection continues to be used, coroutines aren't a problem. R2DBC already has great support for this concurrency model. – craigmiller160 Apr 02 '23 at 14:38

Is it possible to use @Transactional and kotlin coroutines in spring boot?

2 Answers2