Advanced Oracle PL/SQL Programming with Packages

20.1. PLVcmt: Enhancing Commit Processing

The PLVcmt (PL/Vision CoMmiT) package encapsulates logic and complexity for dealing with commit processing. For example, you can use PLVcmt to rapidly define scripts that execute commits every 1,000 transactions. You can replace any direct calls to COMMIT with a call to PLVcmt.perform_commit and thereby give yourself additional testing and debugging flexibility. By providing a programmatic interface to commit activity in PL/SQL, PL/Vision gives you the ability to change transaction-level behavior at runtime. You can also reduce the volume of code you write to perform commits in your applications.

20.1.1. Who Needs PLVcmt?

In my first book on PL/SQL, I used more that 900 pages to talk about almost every aspect of the PL/SQL language. But notice that word: almost. I did not, in fact, cover two very important commands in PL/SQL: COMMIT and ROLLBACK. Why didn't I discuss these commands? For two reasons: oversight and rationalization. The oversight was due to the fact that I had up to that time rarely performed commits in my PL/SQL programs (they were usually a part of Oracle Forms applications or were developer utilities).

When I did issue a commit, I didn't pay much attention. There just wasn't much to it. And that is where the rationalization part of the explanation comes in. Even when I did realize that COMMIT and ROLLBACK were missing from my book (fairly late in the game, but in time to include them), I said to myself: they are so simple ...