Tuesday 17 May 2011

JDev 11g, Task Flows & ADF BC – the Always use Existing Transaction option – it's not what it seems

JDev 11.1.1.5.0

Oracle's JDeveloper 11g introduces the powerful concept of task flows to the Application Development Framework (ADF). Task flows enable "Service Oriented Development" (akin to "Service Oriented Architecture") allowing developers to align web application development closely to the concept of business processes, rather than a disparate set of web pages strung loosely together by URLs.

Yet as the old saying goes, "with power comes great responsibility", or alternatively, "the devil is in the detail". Developers need to have a good grasp of the task flow capabilities and options in order to not paint themselves into a corner. This is particularly true of the transaction and data control scope behavioural options provided by "bounded" task flows.

The transaction and data control scope behavioural options available to bounded task flows provide a sophisticated set of functionality for spawning and managing one or more transactions during an ADF user's session. Straight from the Fusion Developer's Guide the transaction options are:

• <No Controller Transaction>: The called bounded task flow does not participate in any transaction management.

• Always Use Existing Transaction: When called, the bounded task flow participates in an existing transaction already in progress.

• Use Existing Transaction If Possible: When called, the bounded task flow either participates in an existing transaction if one exists, or starts a new transaction upon entry of the bounded task flow if one doesn't exist.

• Always Begin New Transaction: A new transaction starts when the bounded task flow is entered, regardless of whether or not a transaction is in progress. The new transaction completes when the bounded task flow exits.

In recently discussing the task flow transaction options on the OTN Forums (with the kind assistance of Frank Nimphius it's become apparent that the transaction options described in the Fusion Guide are written from the limited perspective of the ADF controller (ADFc). Why a limited perspective? Because the documentation doesn't consider how these transactions options are dealt with by the underlying business services layer – the controller makes no assumptions about the underlying layers, it is deliberate an abstraction that sits on top. As such if we consider ADF Business Components (ADF BC), ADFc can interpret the task flow transaction options as it sees fit. The inference being, ADF BC can introduce subtle nuances in how the transaction options work as called by the controller.

The vanilla "Always Use Existing Transaction" option

The Fusion Guide is clear in the use of the task flow "Always Use Existing Transaction" option:

• Always Use Existing Transaction: When called, the bounded task flow participates in an existing transaction already in progress.

The inference here is that the task flow won't create its own transaction, but rather will attach itself to an existing transaction established by its calling task flow (let's refer to this as the "parent" task flow), or a "grandparent" task flow somewhere up the task flow call stack.

To test this let's demonstrate how ADFc enforces this option.

In our first example application we have an extremely simple ADF BC model of a single Entity Object (EO), single View Object (VO) and Application Module (AM), serving data from a table of Organisations in my local database:


Oracle's JDeveloper 11g introduces the powerful concept of task flows to the Application Development Framework (ADF). Task flows enable "Service Oriented Development" (akin to "Service Oriented Architecture") allowing developers to align web application development closely to the concept of business processes, rather than a disparate set of web pages strung loosely together by URLs.

From the ViewController side we have a single Bounded Task Flow (BTF) OrgTaskFlow1 comprised of a single page:


....where the single page displays a table of Organisations via the underlying ADF Business Components:


...and the transaction options of the BTF are set to Always Use Existing Transaction. By default the framework enforces the data control scope must be shared:


In order to call the BTF, from our Unbounded Task Flow (UTF) configured in the adfc-config.xml file, we have a simple Start.jspx page, which via a button invokes a Task Flow Call to the BTF OrgTaskFlow1:


On starting the application, running the Start page, selecting the button to navigate to the Task Flow Call, we immediately hit the following error:
oracle.adf.controller.activity.ActivityLogicException: ADFC-00006: Existing transaction is required when calling task flow '/WEB-INF/OrgTaskFlow1.xml#OrgTaskFlow1'.

Via this error we can see ADFc is enforcing at runtime that the OrgTaskFlow1 BTF is unable to run as it requires its parent or grandparent task flow to have established a transaction on its behalf. With this enforcement we can (incorrectly?) conclude that Oracle's controller will never allow the BTF to run if a new transaction hasn't been established. However as you can probably guess, this post will demonstrate this isn't always the case.

A side note on transactions

Before showing how to create a transaction with the Always Use Existing Transaction option, a discussion on how we can identify transactions created via ADF BC is required.

Readers familiar with ADF Business Components will know that root Application Modules (AM) are responsible for the establishment of connections and transactional processing with the database. Ultimately the concept of transactions in context of the ADF Controller is that off the underlying business services, and by inference when ADF Business Components are used this means it's the root Application Modules that provide this functionality.

It should also be noted that by inference, that the concept of a transaction and a connection are the one in the same, in the idea that a connection with the database allows you to support a transaction, and if you have multiple transactions, you therefore have multiple connections. Simple you can't have one without the other.

Yet thanks to the Application Module providing the ability to create connections and transactions, how do we know when an AM actually creates a connection? Without knowing this, in our trials with the transaction options supported by Bounded Task Flows, unless the ADFc explicitly throws an error, we'll have trouble discerning what the ADF BC layer is actually doing underneath the task flow transaction options.

While external tools like the Fusion Middleware Control will give you a good insight into this, the easiest mechanism is to extend the Application Module's ApplicationModuleImpl's class with our AppModuleImpl and override the create() and prepareSession() methods:
public class AppModuleImpl extends ApplicationModuleImpl {
// Other generated methods

@Override
protected void create() {
super.create();
if (isRoot())
System.out.println("######## AppModuleImpl.create() called. AM isRoot() = true");
else
System.out.println("######## AppModuleImpl.create() called. AM isRoot() = false");
}

@Override
protected void prepareSession(Session session) {
super.prepareSession(session);
if (isRoot())
System.out.println("######## AppModuleImpl.prepareSession() called. AM isRoot() = true");
else
System.out.println("######## AppModuleImpl.prepareSession() called. AM isRoot() = false");
}
}
Overriding the create() method allows us to see when the Application Module is not just instantiated, but ready to be used. This doesn't tell us when a transaction and connection is established with the database, but, is useful in identifying situations where the framework creates a nested AM (which is useful for another discussion about task flows, stay tuned for another blog post).

The prepareSession() method is a chokepoint method the framework uses to set database session state when a connection is established with the database. As such overriding this method allows us to see when the AM does establish a new connection and transaction.

Bending the "Always Use Existing Transaction" option to create a transaction

Now that we have a mechanism for seeing when transactions are established, let's show a scenario where the Always Use Existing Transaction option does create a new transaction.

In our previous example our Unbounded Task Flow called our OrgTaskFlow1 Bounded Task Flow directly. This time let's introduce an intermediate Bounded Task Flow called the PregnantTaskFlow. As such our UTF Start page now calls the PregnantTaskFlow:


The PregnantTaskFlow will set its transaction option to Always Begin New Transaction and an Isolated data control scope:


By doing this we are setting up a scenario where the parent task flow will establish a transaction, which will be used by the OrgTaskFlow1 later on. Next within the PregnantTaskFlow we include a single page to land on called Pregnant.jspx, which includes a simple button to then navigate to the OrgTaskFlow1 task flow via a Task Flow Call in the PregnantTaskFlow itself:


The Pregnant.jspx page is only necessary as it gives a useful landing page when the task flow is called, to see what the task flow has done with transactions before we call the OrgTaskFlow1 BTF.

The transaction options of the OrgTaskFlow1 remain the same, Always Use Existing Transaction and a Shared data control scope:


With the moving parts of our application established, if we now run our application starting with the Start page:


...clicking on the button we arrive on the Pregnant.jspx page within the PregnantTaskFlow BTF:


(Oops, looks like this picture has been lost... I'll attempt to restore this picture soon)

Remembering our PregnantTaskFlow is responsible for establishing the transaction, and therefore we should see our Application Module create() and prepareSession() methods write out System.out.println messages to the console in the JDev log window:


Hmmm, interesting, the log window is bare, no sign of our messages? So our PregnantTaskFlow was set to create a new transaction, but no such transaction or connection with the database for that matter was established?

Here's the interesting point of our demonstration. If we then select the button in the Pregnant.jspx page which will navigate to the OrgTaskFlow1 task flow call activity in the PregnantTaskFlow, firstly we see in the browser our OrgList.jspx page:


According to our previous tests at the beginning of this post we may have expected the ADFC-00006 error "Existing transaction is required", but instead the page has rendered?

In addition if we look at our log window:


...we now see our System.out.println messages in the console, showing that the AM create() methods were called and a new connection was established to the database via the prepareSession() method being called too.

(Why are there 2 calls to create() for AppModuleImpl? The following blog post on root AM interaction with task flows explains all.)

The contradictory results here are, that even though we set the Always Use Existing Transaction option for the OrgTaskFlow1 BTF are expected the ADFC-00006 error, that it in fact OrgTaskFlow1 did establish a new transaction?

What's going on?

An easy but incorrect conclusion to make is this is an ADF bug. However if you think through how the ADF framework works with bindings to the underlying services layer, in our context ADF BC, this actually makes sense.

From the point of view of a task flow, there is no inherit and directly configured relationship between the task flow and the business services layer/ADF BC. As example there is no option in the task flow properties to say which Data Control mapping to an ADF BC Application Module the task flow will use. The only point in the framework where the ADF view and controller layers touch the ADF BC side is through the pageDef bindings files, which are used by distinct task flow activities (including pages and page fragments) within the task flow as we navigate through the task flow (i.e. not the task flow itself). As such until the task flow hits an activity that calls a binding indirectly calling the ADF BC Application Module via a Data Control, the task flow has no way of actually establishing the transaction.

That's why in the demonstrations above I referred to the intermediate task flow as the "pregnant" task flow. This task flow knows it wants to establish a transaction with the underlying business services Application Module through a binding layer Data Control, it's effectively pregnant waiting for such the event, but it can't do so until one of its children activities exercises a pageDef file with a call to the business service (to take the analogy too far, you're in labour expecting your first child, you've rushed to the hospital, but you're told you'll have to wait as the widwife hasn't arrived yet ... you know at this point you're going to have this damned kid, but you've got to desperately wait until the midwife arrives ;-)

By chance in our example, the first activity in the PregnantTaskFlow that does have a pageDef file is the OrgList.jspx page that resides in the OrgTaskFlow1 task flow called via a task flow call in the PregnantTaskFlow. So in the sense even though the OrgTaskFlow1 says it won't create a transaction, it in fact does.

Why does this matter?

At this point of the discussion you might think this all a very interesting discussion, but rather an academic exercise too. Logically there's still only one transaction established for the combination of the PregnantTaskFlow and OrgTaskFlow1, regardless of where the transaction is actually established. Why does it matter?

Recently on the ADF Enterprise Methodology Group I started a discussion on building task flow for reuse. Of specific interest I asked the question on what's the most flexible data control scope and transactions options to pick such that we don't limit the reusability of our task flows? If we set the wrong options such as Always Use Existing Transaction, because of errors like ADFC-00006, it may make the task flow unreusable, or at least limited in reuse to specific scenarios.

The initial conclusion from the ADF EMG post was only the Use Existing Transaction if Possible and Shared data control scope options should be used, as, this option will reuse an existing transaction if available from the calling task flow, or, establish a new transaction if one isn't available.

However from the conclusion of this post we can see the Always Use Existing Transaction option is in fact more flexible than first thought as long as we at some point wrap it in a task flow that starts a transaction, giving us another option when building reusable task flows.

Some caveats

A caveat also shared by the next blog post on task flow transaction, is both posts describe the transaction behaviours in context of the interaction with ADF Business Components. Readers should not assume that the same transaction behaviour will be exhibited by different underlying business services such as EJBs, POJOs or Web Services. As example Web Services don't have the concept of transactions, so we can probably guess that there's no point using anything but the No Controller Transaction option .... however again you need to experiment with these alternatives yourself, don't base your conclusions on this post.

Further reading

If you've got this far, I highly recommend you follow up reading this post by reading my next blog post on root Application Modules and how the transaction options of task flows change their behaviour.

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