Question

Right now i have code that initiates transactions on SQL Server using the intended method:

ExecuteNonQuery(connection, "BEGIN TRANSACTION");
try
{
   DoABunchOnStuff(connection);
   DoSomeMoreStuff(connection);
   JustAFewMoreThings(connection);

   ExecuteNonQuery(connection, "COMMIT TRANSACTION");
} 
catch (Exception)
{  
   ExecuteNonQuery(connection, "ROLLBACK TRANSACTION");
   throw;
}

Now i’m looking at thinking about the possibility of investigating the idea of using the transaction abstraction provided by ADO.NET:

DbTransaction trans = connection.BeginTransaction();
try
{
   DoABunchOnStuff(connection);
   DoSomeMoreStuff(connection);
   JustAFewMoreThings(connection);

   trans.Commit();
} 
catch (Exception)
{  
   trans.Rollback();
   throw;
}

Problem with this simple conversion from SQL Server based transactions, to ADO.NET transactions, is the error:

ExecuteNonQuery requires the command
to have a transaction when the
connection assigned to the command is
in a pending local transaction. The
Transaction property of the command
has not been initialized.

Am i correct in assuming that if i wanted to use ADO.NET transactions i would have to completely gut the infrastructure, passing along a DbTransaction object to every method that does, or may, operate inside a transaction?

Answer 1

Am i correct in assuming that if i
wanted to use ADO.NET transactions i
would have to completely gut the
infrastructure, passing along a
DbTransaction object to every method
that does, or may, operate inside a
transaction?

Yes, exactly – you basically need to associate the transaction you’ve created with each SqlCommand that ought to be executed under that transaction’s umbrella – so you’d have to have something like:

DbTransaction trans = connection.BeginTransaction();
try
{
   DoABunchOnStuff(connection, trans);
   DoSomeMoreStuff(connection, trans);
   JustAFewMoreThings(connection, trans);

   trans.Commit();
} 
catch (Exception)
{  
   trans.Rollback();
   throw;
}

and inside those methods something along the lines of:

public void DoABunchOnStuff(SqlConnection connection, SqlTransaction trans)
{
    using(SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand(--sql stmt--, connection, trans)
    {
       ........
    } 
}