Question

I am developing an application which communicates with an SQL Server 2005 database to execute some stored procedures. My client demands that all transactions be managed on the C# side and not by SQL Server, and so I am using System.Transactions.TransactionScope when accessing the database. However, I have just seen the System.Transactions.Transaction datatype, and I am confused… What are the main pros/cons of each type? Which one should I use?

Please note that I must also use Enterprise Library’s Data Access Application Block.

Answer 1

From msdn :

The TransactionScope class provides a
simple way to mark a block of code as
participating in a transaction,
without requiring you to interact with the transaction itself. A
transaction scope can select and
manage the ambient transaction
automatically. Due to its ease of use
and efficiency, it is recommended that
you use the TransactionScope class
when developing a transaction
application. When you instantiate
TransactionScope, the transaction
manager determines which transaction
to participate in. Once determined,
the scope always participates in that
transaction. The decision is based on
two factors: whether an ambient
transaction is present and the value
of the TransactionScopeOption
parameter in the constructor. The
ambient transaction is the transaction
within which your code executes. You
can obtain a reference to the ambient
transaction by calling the static
Current property of the Transaction
class.

You can read more about that here :

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms172152(v=vs.90).aspx

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.transactions.transactionscope(v=vs.90).aspx

Great (a bit old) article about transaction in .NET 2.0

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms973865.aspx