Unable to use transactions with System.Data.OracleClient data provider

Question

I am using VS2008, System.Data.OracleClient, Oracle 10g, and ODAC 10.2.0.20. I haven't been able to get transactions to work. When I use 'connection.BeginTransaction()', the rollback doesn't work. When I use TransactionScope, the output parameter is always DBNull. Any ideas/comments?
Here's the sample code:
// #define ENABLE_TRANSACTION // failure is 'rollback not working'
#define ENABLE_TRANSACTION_SCOPE // failure is 'no output parameter value'
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data;
using System.Text;
using System.Data.OracleClient;
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION_SCOPE
using System.Transactions;
#endif
namespace TestOracleTransaction
class Program
static void Main(string[] args)
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION_SCOPE
using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope())
#endif
string connectionString = "Data Source=ORADEV;User ID=user;Password=pwd";
using (OracleConnection connection = new OracleConnection(connectionString))
try
connection.Open();
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION
using (OracleTransaction transaction = connection.BeginTransaction())
#endif
try
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION_SCOPE
if (Transaction.Current == null)
throw new ArgumentException("no ambient transaction found for OracleClient");
#endif
OracleCommand command = connection.CreateCommand();
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION
command.Transaction = transaction;
#endif
command.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
command.CommandText = "TIS.P_TIS_GATEWAY_INFO_ADD";
OracleParameter param = command.CreateParameter();
param.ParameterName = "p_gateway_id";
param.Direction = ParameterDirection.Input;
param.DbType = DbType.Int64;
param.Value = 18;
command.Parameters.Add(param);
param = command.CreateParameter();
param.ParameterName = "p_info_id";
param.Direction = ParameterDirection.Input;
param.DbType = DbType.Int64;
param.Value = 79;
command.Parameters.Add(param);
param = command.CreateParameter();
param.ParameterName = "p_user";
param.Direction = ParameterDirection.Input;
param.DbType = DbType.String;
param.Value = "spms";
command.Parameters.Add(param);
param = command.CreateParameter();
param.ParameterName = "p_gateway_info_id";
param.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;
param.DbType = DbType.Int64;
param.Size = sizeof(Int64);
command.Parameters.Add(param);
int count = command.ExecuteNonQuery();
object value = command.Parameters["p_gateway_info_id"].Value;
long id = (value == DBNull.Value) ? -1 : Convert.ToInt64(value);
if (id < 0)
// FAILURE - no output parameter value when TransactionScope enabled
throw new ArgumentException("no return value");
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION
// FAILURE - rollback doesn't work when Transaction enabled
transaction.Rollback();
#endif
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION_SCOPE
scope.Complete();
#endif
catch (Exception ex)
System.Console.WriteLine("ERROR: " + ex.Message);
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION
transaction.Rollback();
#endif
finally
if (connection.State == ConnectionState.Open)
connection.Close();
}

Answer 1

Hi,
First, this is not the place for questions with System.Data.OracleClient, this is the Oracle Data Provider for .NET forum. Having said that I went ahead and tested your code with some slight modifications because you did not provide the stored procedure information. I am assuming your stored procedure is doing some sort of DML since you are using transactions and attempting to commit and rollback.
I tested the following with both Transaction scope and a local transaction object and it worked fine with System.Data.OracleClient. I provided the create table and stored procedure I used.
Observations
========
When using transaction scope, a distributed transactions was executed and the data was inserted and returned in the output variable.
From console
p1 value is Hello World
From SQL Plus
SQL> select * from foo;
C1
Hello World
When using a local transaction, the DML was not inserted when calling rollback and when I changed it to commit, the row was inserted successfully.
Maybe you can test the simple foo example below to see if it works for you. Maybe there is something going on in your SP that is causing your specific observations.
The code I posted at this point is using local transaction and calling transaction.commit(), rollback is commented out. But I tested all scenarios and they worked as expected.
HTH
Jenny
#define ENABLE_TRANSACTION // failure is 'rollback not working'
//#define ENABLE_TRANSACTION_SCOPE // failure is 'no output parameter value'
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Data;
using System.Text;
using System.Data.OracleClient;
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION_SCOPE
using System.Transactions;
#endif
create table foo (c1 varchar2(50));
create or replace procedure getstr (p1 out varchar2) as
begin
insert into foo(c1) values ('Hello World') returning c1 into p1;
end;
namespace TestOracleTransaction
class Program
static void Main(string[] args)
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION_SCOPE
using (TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope())
#endif
string connectionString = "Data Source=orcl;User ID=scott;Password=tiger";
using (OracleConnection connection = new OracleConnection(connectionString))
try
connection.Open();
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION
using (OracleTransaction transaction = connection.BeginTransaction())
#endif
try
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION_SCOPE
if (Transaction.Current == null)
throw new ArgumentException("no ambient transaction found for OracleClient");
#endif
OracleCommand command = connection.CreateCommand();
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION
command.Transaction = transaction;
#endif
command.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;
command.CommandText = "SCOTT.GETSTR";
OracleParameter param = command.CreateParameter();
param.ParameterName = "p1";
param.Direction = ParameterDirection.Output;
param.DbType = DbType.AnsiString;
param.Size = 20;
command.Parameters.Add(param);
int count = command.ExecuteNonQuery();
object value = command.Parameters["p1"].Value;
Console.WriteLine("p1 value is {0}",value.ToString());
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION
// FAILURE - rollback doesn't work when Transaction enabled
transaction.Commit();
//transaction.Rollback();
#endif
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION_SCOPE
scope.Complete();
#endif
catch (Exception ex)
System.Console.WriteLine("ERROR: " + ex.Message);
#if ENABLE_TRANSACTION
transaction.Rollback();
#endif
finally
if (connection.State == ConnectionState.Open)
connection.Close();
}