TrxExt

Extends functionality of ActiveRecord's transaction to auto-retry failed SQL transaction in case of deadlock, serialization error or unique constraint error. The implementation is not bound to any database, but relies on the rails connection adapters instead. Thus, if your database is supported by rails out of the box, then the gem's features will just work. Currently supported adapters:

  • postgresql
  • mysql2
  • sqlite3
  • trilogy

WARNING!

Because the implementation of this gem wraps some ActiveRecord methods - carefully test its integration into your project. For example, if your application patches ActiveRecord or if some of your gems patches ActiveRecord - there might be conflicts in the implementation which could potentially lead to the data loss.

Requirements

  • ActiveRecord 7.2+
  • Ruby 3.1+

If you need the support of rails v6.0, v6.1, v7.0 - please use v1.x of this gem, but it works with PostgreSQL only. If you need the support of rails v7.1 - please use v2.x of this gem.

Installation

Add this line to your application's Gemfile:

gem 'trx_ext'

And then execute:

$ bundle install

Or install it yourself as:

$ gem install trx_ext

Usage

require 'trx_ext'

# Object#trx is a shorthand of ActiveRecord::Base.transaction
trx do
  DummyRecord.first || DummyRecord.create
end

trx do
  DummyRecord.first || DummyRecord.create
  trx do |t|
    t.after_commit { puts "This message will be printed after COMMIT statement." }
  end  
end

trx do
  DummyRecord.first || DummyRecord.create
  trx do |t|
    t.after_rollback { puts "This message will be printed after ROLLBACK statement." }
  end
  raise ActiveRecord::Rollback
end

class DummyRecord
  # Wrap method in transaction
  wrap_in_trx def some_method_with_quieries
    DummyRecord.first || DummyRecord.create
  end
end

If you are using non-primary connection for your model - you have to explicitly call trx method over that class:

DummyRecord.trx do
  DummyRecord.first || DummyRecord.create
end

In general, you should know about this if you are using multi-databases configuration.

If you want to wrap some method into a transaction using wrap_in_trx outside the ActiveRecord model context, you can pass a model name as a second argument explicitly:

class MyAwesomeLib
  # Wrap method in transaction
  def some_method_with_quieries
    DummyRecord.first || DummyRecord.create
  end
  wrap_in_trx :some_method_with_quieries, 'DummyRecord'
end

Configuration

TrxExt.configure do |config|
  # Number of retries before failing when unique constraint error raises. Default is 5
  config.unique_retries = 5
end

How it works?

When an ActiveRecord SQL query fails due to deadlock error, serialization error or unique constraint error - it is automatically retried. In case of ActiveRecord transaction - the block of code the AR transaction belongs to is re-executed, thus the transaction query is retried.

Rules you have to stick when using this gem

Don't put into a single transaction more than needed for integrity purposes.

There is "On complete" feature that allows you to define callbacks(blocks of code) that will be executed after transaction is complete. See On complete callbacks section bellow for the docs. See On complete callbacks integrity section bellow to be aware about different situations with them.

  • Don't explicitly wrap queries.

    Bad

    trx { User.find_by(username: 'someusername') }

    Good

    User.find_by(username: 'someusername')

  • Don't wrap multiple SELECT queries in a single transaction unless it is of vital importance (see epigraph).

    Bad

    trx do
  @author = User.first
  @posts = current_user.posts.load
end

    BEGIN
SELECT "users".* FROM "users" ...
SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts" ...
COMMIT

    Good

    @author = User.first
@posts = current_user.posts.load

    -- TrxExt::Retry.with_retry_until_serialized {
SELECT "users".* FROM "users" ...
-- }
-- TrxExt::Retry.with_retry_until_serialized {
SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts" ...
-- }

  • Beware of AR::Relation lazy loading if it is necessary to have multiple SELECTs in a single transaction.

    Bad

    trx do
  @posts = Post.all
  @users = User.all
end

    will result in no query.

    Good

    trx do
  @posts = Post.all.load
  @users = User.all.load
end

    BEGIN
SELECT "posts".* FROM "posts" ...
SELECT "users".* FROM "users" ...
COMMIT

  • When performing UPDATE/INSERT queries that depend on record's state - reload that record in the beginning of trx block.

#### Bad ```ruby def initialize(user) @user = user
end

def update_posts
  trx do
    @user.posts.update_all(banned: true) if @user.user_permission.admin?
  end  
end    
```

```sql
BEGIN      
  UPDATE posts SET banned = TRUE WHERE posts.user_id IN (...)
COMMIT
```

#### Explanation It might not be obvious that this code depends on @user - UserPermission#admin? is used to detect whether Post#banned must be updated. However, it is accessed through @user and there is no guarantee that, when calling @user.user_permission, it was not already cached by either previous calls, upper by stack trace, or inside trx block on transaction retry. This is why it is mandatory to call @user.reload - to reset user's cache and the cache of user's relations.

#### Good ```ruby def initialize(user) @user = user
end

def update_posts
  trx do
    @user.reload
    @user.posts.update_all(banned: true) if @user.user_permission.admin?
  end  
end    
```

```sql
BEGIN
  SELECT * FROM users WHERE users.id = ...
  SELECT * FROM user_permissions WHERE user_permissions.user_id = ...
  UPDATE posts SET banned = TRUE WHERE posts.id IN (...)
COMMIT
```
  • It may happen that you need to invoke mailer's method inside trx block and pass there values that are calculated within the transaction block. Normally, you need to extract those values into after-transaction code and invoke mailer after transaction's end. Use after_commit callback to simplify your code:

#### Bad ruby trx do user = User.find_or_initialize_by(email: email) if user.save # May be invoked more than one time if transaction is retried Mailer.registration_confirmation(user.id).deliver_later end end

#### Good (before refactoring) ruby user = nil result = trx do user = User.find_or_initialize_by(email: email) user.save end Mailer.registration_confirmation(user.id).deliver_later if result

#### Good (after refactoring) ruby trx do |t| user = User.find_or_initialize_by(email: email) if user.save t.after_commit { Mailer.registration_confirmation(user.id).deliver_later } end end

  • Always keep in mind, that retrying of transactions is just re-execution of ruby's block of code on transaction retry. If you have any variables, that are changing inside the block - ensure that their values are reset in the beginning of block. Don't use methods that will raise error if called more than twice.

#### Bad ruby resurrected_users_count = 0 trx do User.deleted.find_each do |user| if user.created_at > 2.days.ago user.active! resurrected_users_count += 1 end end end puts resurrected_users_count

#### Good ruby resurrected_users_count = nil trx do resurrected_users_count = 0 User.deleted.find_each do |user| if user.created_at > 2.days.ago user.active! resurrected_users_count += 1 end end end puts resurrected_users_count

#### Bad ruby class UsersController def update # This may raise AbstractController::DoubleRenderError if either redirect or render invoked twice trx do if @user.update(user_params) redirect_to @user else render :edit end end end end

#### Bad ruby class UsersController # This may raise AbstractController::DoubleRenderError if either redirect or render invoked twice wrap_in_trx def update if @user.update(user_params) redirect_to @user else render :edit end end end

#### Good ruby class UsersController def update if @user.update(user_params) redirect_to @user else render :edit end end end

#### Good ruby class UsersController def update trx do |t| if @user.update(user_params) t.after_commit { redirect_to @user } else t.after_commit { render :edit } end end end end

  • Carefully implement the code that is related to the non-relational databases like Redis or MongoDB

#### Bad ruby trx do @post.reload if @post.tags_arr.include?('special') @post.update_columns(special: true) @post.mongo_post.update(special: true) end end

#### Explanation

Example: @post.tags_arr.include?('special') == true and, as a result, @post.mongo_post.update(special: true) is executed but transaction is failed to be serialized. On second try - @post.tags_arr.include?('special') becomes false but the value of MongoPost#special was already changed

#### Good ruby trx do @post.reload if @post.tags_arr.include?('special') @post.update_columns(special: true) end @post.mongo_post.update(special: @post.tags_arr.include?('special')) end

  • Don't explicitly use return in the transaction's block of code. It may affect on how the transaction is going to be finished. Currently, it finishes with COMPLETE statement, but in the future versions it may change - according to the warning message, the behaviour may change soon.

#### Bad ```ruby def some_method trx do return if User.where(email: email).exists?

    User.create(email: email)
  end
end
```

#### Bad ```ruby def some_method trx do |t| user = User.find_by(email: email) return user if user

    user = User.create(email: email)
    t.after_commit { Mailer.registration_confirmation(user.id).deliver_later }
  end
end
```

#### Explanation Using return in the Proc(a block of code is a Proc) will return from the stack call instead the return from the block of code. Example:

```
def some_method
  puts "Start"
  yield
  puts "End"
end

def another_method
  some_method do
    puts "Hi"
    return
  end
end
```

Calling #another_method will output Start and Hi string, End string will never get output. Refer to official docs for more info.

#### Good ruby def some_method trx do unless User.where(email: email).exists? User.create(email: email) end end end

#### Good
```ruby wrap_in_trx def some_method return if User.where(email: email).exists?

  User.create(email: email)
end
```

#### Good ```ruby wrap_in_trx def some_method user = User.find_by(email: email) return user if user

  user = User.create(email: email)
  trx { |t| t.after_commit { Mailer.registration_confirmation(user.id).deliver_later } }
end
```

Make methods atomic.

You can make any method atomic by wrapping it into transaction using #wrap_in_trx. Example:

class ApplicationRecord < ActiveRecord::Base
  class << self
    wrap_in_trx :find_or_create_by
    wrap_in_trx :find_or_create_by!
  end

  wrap_in_trx def some_method
    SomeRecord.first || SomeRecord.create
  end
end

Development

Setup

  • After checking out the repo, run bundle install to install dependencies.
  • Run docker-compose using docker compose up command - it starts necessary services
  • Run next command to create dev and test databases:
bundle exec rails db:create db:migrate
RAILS_ENV=test bundle exec rails db:migrate

Now you can run bin/console for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment.

Tests

You can run tests for currently installed AR using rspec command. There is bin/test_all_ar_versions executable that allows you to run tests within all supported AR versions.

Other

To install this gem onto your local machine, run bundle exec rake install. To release a new version, update the version number in version.rb, and then run bundle exec rake release, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and the created tag, and push the .gem file to rubygems.org.

Contributing

Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/intale/trx_ext. This project is intended to be a safe, welcoming space for collaboration, and contributors are expected to adhere to the code of conduct.

License

The gem is available as open source under the terms of the MIT License.

Code of Conduct

Everyone interacting in the TrxExt project's codebases, issue trackers, chat rooms and mailing lists is expected to follow the code of conduct.