13.1.2 Transactions Rollback and the Session 5.1.2

(Quick Reference) # 13.1.2 Transactions Rollback and the Session Version: 5.1.2 ## 13.1.2 Transactions Rollback and the Session ### Understanding Transactions and the Hibernate Session When using transactions there are important considerations you must take into account with regards to how the underlying persistence session is handled by Hibernate. When a transaction is rolled back the Hibernate session used by GORM is cleared. This means any objects within the session become detached and accessing uninitialized lazy-loaded collections will lead to a `LazyInitializationException`. To understand why it is important that the Hibernate session is cleared. Consider the following example:
    class Author {
        String name
        Integer age

        static hasMany = [books: Book]
    }
If you were to save two authors using consecutive transactions as follows:
    Author.withTransaction { status ->
        new Author(name: "Stephen King", age: 40).save()
        status.setRollbackOnly()
    }

    Author.withTransaction { status ->
        new Author(name: "Stephen King", age: 40).save()
    }
Only the second author would be saved since the first transaction rolls back the author `save()` by clearing the Hibernate session. If the Hibernate session were not cleared then both author instances would be persisted and it would lead to very unexpected results. It can, however, be frustrating to get a `LazyInitializationException` due to the session being cleared. For example, consider the following example:
    class AuthorService {

        void updateAge(id, int age) {
            def author = Author.get(id)
            author.age = age
            if (author.isTooOld()) {
                throw new AuthorException("too old", author)
            }
        }
    }
    class AuthorController {

        def authorService

        def updateAge() {
            try {
                authorService.updateAge(params.id, params.int("age"))
            }
            catch(e) {
                render "Author books ${e.author.books}"
            }
        }
    }
In the above example the transaction will be rolled back if the age of the `Author` age exceeds the maximum value defined in the `isTooOld()` method by throwing an `AuthorException`. The `AuthorException` references the author but when the `books` association is accessed a `LazyInitializationException` will be thrown because the underlying Hibernate session has been cleared. To solve this problem you have a number of options. One is to ensure you query eagerly to get the data you will need:
    class AuthorService {
        ...
        void updateAge(id, int age) {
            def author = Author.findById(id, [fetch:[books:"eager"]])
            ...
In this example the `books` association will be queried when retrieving the `Author`.
| This is the optimal solution as it requires fewer queries than the following suggested solutions.
Another solution is to redirect the request after a transaction rollback:
    class AuthorController {

        AuthorService authorService

        def updateAge() {
            try {
                authorService.updateAge(params.id, params.int("age"))
            }
            catch(e) {
                flash.message = "Can't update age"
                redirect action:"show", id:params.id
            }
        }
    }
In this case a new request will deal with retrieving the `Author` again. And, finally a third solution is to retrieve the data for the `Author` again to make sure the session remains in the correct state:
    class AuthorController {

        def authorService

        def updateAge() {
            try {
                authorService.updateAge(params.id, params.int("age"))
            }
            catch(e) {
                def author = Author.read(params.id)
                render "Author books ${author.books}"
            }
        }
    }
### Validation Errors and Rollback A common use case is to rollback a transaction if there are validation errors. For example consider this service:
    import grails.validation.ValidationException

    class AuthorService {

        void updateAge(id, int age) {
            def author = Author.get(id)
            author.age = age
            if (!author.validate()) {
                throw new ValidationException("Author is not valid", author.errors)
            }
        }
    }
To re-render the same view that a transaction was rolled back in you can re-associate the errors with a refreshed instance before rendering:
    import grails.validation.ValidationException

    class AuthorController {

        def authorService

        def updateAge() {
            try {
                authorService.updateAge(params.id, params.int("age"))
            }
            catch (ValidationException e) {
                def author = Author.read(params.id)
                author.errors = e.errors
                render view: "edit", model: [author:author]
            }
        }
    }
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