Question

I have asp.net application. All business logic in business layer.

Here is the example of the method

public void DoSomething()
{
        PersonClass pc = new PersonClass();

        pc.CreatePerson();
        pc.AssignBasicTask();
        pc.ChangePersonsStatus();
        pc.CreateDefaultSettings();    
}

what happens once in a while, one of the sub method can timeout, so as a result the process can be incompleted.

what I think in this case to make sure all steps completed properly is

public void DoSomething()
    {
            PersonClass pc = new PersonClass();
            var error = null;

            error =  pc.CreatePerson();

            if(error != timeout exception)                  
             error = pc.AssignBasicTask();
            else
              return to step above

            if(error != timeout exception)
              error = pc.ChangePersonsStatus();
            else
              return to step above

            if(error != timeout exception)
              error = pc.CreateDefaultSettings();
            else
              return to step above    
    }

but it’s just an idea, more then sure it’s a proper way how to handle this.

Answer 1

Use a TransactionScope for to make sure everything is executed as a unit. More info here: Implementing an Implicit Transaction using Transaction Scope

You should never retry a timed out operation infinitely, you may end up hanging the server or with an infinite loop or both. There should always be a threshold of how many retries is acceptable to attempt before quitting.

Sample:

using(TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope())
{
   try
   {
      // Your code here

      // If no errors were thrown commit your transaction
      scope.Complete();          
   }
   catch
   {
      // Some error handling
   }
}