Rows remain locked after merging workspace

Question

Hi there,
I wasn't able to manually refresh a workspace with changes merged into LIVE workspace by another child workspace. It seems the rows merged into LIVE remain locked by the merged child workspace.
The sample code below illustrates the problem:
EXECUTE DBMS_WM.CreateWorkspace ('ws01', FALSE, 'WS not refreshed');
EXECUTE DBMS_WM.GotoWorkspace ('ws01');
SELECT DBMS_WM.GetWorkspace FROM DUAL;
-- insert a POLE element
DECLARE
     l_id          NUMBER;
BEGIN
     SELECT seq_entity.NEXTVAL INTO l_id FROM DUAL;
     INSERT INTO pole (id, num) VALUES (l_id, '&NUM');
     COMMIT;
END;
EXECUTE DBMS_WM.GotoWorkspace ('LIVE');
EXECUTE DBMS_WM.CreateWorkspace ('ws02', TRUE, 'WS not refreshed');
EXECUTE DBMS_WM.GotoWorkspace ('ws02');
SELECT DBMS_WM.GetWorkspace FROM DUAL;
-- insert a POLE element
DECLARE
     l_id          NUMBER;
BEGIN
     SELECT seq_entity.NEXTVAL INTO l_id FROM DUAL;
     INSERT INTO pole (id, num) VALUES (l_id, '&NUM');
     COMMIT;
END;
EXECUTE DBMS_WM.GotoWorkspace ('LIVE');
-- merge workspace ws02
EXECUTE DBMS_WM.MergeWorkspace ('ws02');
-- refresh workspace ws01
EXECUTE DBMS_WM.RefreshWorkspace ('ws01');
The following error message is displayed:
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-20034: attempt to INSERT a [i]Long postings are being truncated to ~1 kB at this time.

Answer 1

Karina,
Until the 9iR2 (9.2.0.1) release of OWM, all continually-refreshed (CR) workspaces are, by default, locked in pessimistic mode. So, a workspace shared lock will be automatically taken on any rows modified by a CR workspace. In addition, when rows modified by a CR workspace are merged to its' parent workspace, we carry the locks forward. We need to do this to ensure that no other workspace can further refresh/modify this row thereby breaking the pessimistic mode of the CR workspace.
That is the reason you see the "row is locked" error. In other words, that is the current behaviour - it is not a bug.
Having said that, in our next release (9.2.0.2.0 Patch kit - available on OTN in the Software section of Workspace Manager as of Jan 30, 2003), we have removed this restriction. So, once you upgrade to this new kit, you should see this problem disappear.
Let us know if this works for you.
Thanks,
- Ramesh.