Transactions handling

Informix®

With the Informix native mode (non ANSI):

• Transactions blocks start with BEGIN WORK and terminate with COMMIT WORK or ROLLBACK WORK.
• Statements executed outside a transaction are automatically committed.
• DDL statements can be executed (and canceled) in transactions.

UPDATE tab1 SET ...   -- auto-committed
BEGIN WORK            -- start of TX block
UPDATE tab1 SET ...
UPDATE tab2 SET ...
...
COMMIT WORK           -- end of TX block

SAVEPOINT name [UNIQUE]
ROLLBACK [WORK] TO SAVEPOINT [name] ]
RELEASE SAVEPOINT name

PostgreSQL

PostgreSQL supports transaction with savepoints:

• Transactions are started with BEGIN WORK.
• Transactions are validated with COMMIT WORK.
• Transactions are canceled with ROLLBACK WORK.
• Savepoints can be placed with SAVEPOINT name.
• Transactions can be rolled back to a savepoint with ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT name.
• Savepoints can be released with RELEASE SAVEPOINT name.
• Statements executed outside of a transaction are automatically committed.
• DDL statements can be executed (and canceled) in transactions.
• If an SQL error occurs in a transaction, the whole transaction is aborted.

Transactions in stored procedures: avoid using transactions in stored procedures to allow the client applications to handle transactions, depending on the transaction model.

The main difference between Informix and PostgreSQL resides in the fact that PostgreSQL cancels the entire transaction if an SQL error occurs in one of the statements executed inside the transaction. The following code example illustrates this difference:

CREATE TABLE tab1 ( k INT PRIMARY KEY, c CHAR(10) )
WHENEVER ERROR CONTINUE
BEGIN WORK
INSERT INTO tab1 ( 1, 'abc' )
INSERT INTO tab1 ( 1, 'abc' )
    -- PK constraint violation = SQL Error, whole TX is aborted
COMMIT WORK

With Informix, this code will leave the table with one row inside, since the first INSERT statement succeeded. With PostgreSQL, the table will remain empty after executing this piece of code, because the server will rollback the whole transaction. To workaround this problem in PostgreSQL you can use SAVEPOINT as described in Solution.

Solution

Informix transaction handling commands are automatically converted to PostgreSQL instructions to start, validate or cancel transactions.

Regarding the transaction control instructions, the BDL applications do not have to be modified in order to work with PostgreSQL.

You must review the SQL statements inside BEGIN WORK / COMMIT WORK instruction and check if these can raise an SQL error. The SQL statements that can potentially raise an SQL error must be protected with a SAVEPOINT. If an error occurs, just rollback to the savepoint:

MAIN
  DATABASE test1
  CREATE TABLE tab1 ( k INT PRIMARY KEY, c CHAR(10) )
  WHENEVER ERROR CONTINUE
  BEGIN WORK
  INSERT INTO tab1 VALUES ( 1, 'abc' )
  CALL sql_protect()
  INSERT INTO tab1 VALUES ( 1, 'abc' )
   -- PK constraint violation = SQL Error
  CALL sql_unprotect()
  COMMIT WORK
END MAIN

FUNCTION sql_protect()
  IF fgl_db_driver_type()!="pgs" THEN
     RETURN
  END IF
  SAVEPOINT _sql_protect_
END FUNCTION

FUNCTION sql_unprotect()
  IF fgl_db_driver_type()!="pgs" THEN
     RETURN
  END IF
  IF SQLCA.SQLCODE < 0 THEN
     ROLLBACK WORK TO SAVEPOINT _sql_protect_
  ELSE
     RELEASE SAVEPOINT _sql_protect_
  END IF
END FUNCTION