Question on container-managed transaction Demarcation

[Mohit G Gupta]

Source:EJB 3.1 Specification

4.3.3 The SessionContext Interface

One of the methods of SessionContext interface is :

The setRollbackOnly method allows the instance to mark the current transaction such
that the only outcome of the transaction is a rollback. Only instances of a session bean with
container-managed transaction demarcation can use this method.

What does "container-managed transaction demarcation " means here ?

[Frits Walraven]

Transactions are either managed by the Container: they are having a so called container-managed transaction demarcation, or
transactions are managed programmatically by the developer: they are having a bean-managed transaction demarcation.

From the EJB-specs:

13.3.1 Bean-Managed Versus Container-Managed Transaction Demarcation
When designing an enterprise bean, the developer must decide whether the enterprise bean will demarcate transactions programmatically in the business methods (bean-managed transaction demarcation), or whether the transaction demarcation is to be performed by the container based on the transaction attributes specified in metadata annotations or in the deployment descriptor

Coming back to the SessionContext method setRollbackOnly() can only be used if your Session bean has:
- the annotation @TransactionManagement(TransactionManagementType.CONTAINER) on the EJB class, or
- has no annotation (because CONTAINER is the default)

Consequently the method setRollbackOnly() cannot be used if the Session Bean has the annotation @TransactionManagement(TransactionManagementType.BEAN) on the EJB class.

Regards,
Frits

[Mohit G Gupta]

Thanks Frits