Implementing SOA: Total Architecture in Practice

Chapter 28. Transactions: Coordinating Two or More Activities

The coordination patterns in the previous chapter focus on the execution of a single activity, but there are times when you would like to treat the execution of two or more activities as if they were a single operation. In other words, you want to make these activities part of a transaction.

An ideal transaction is characterized by four properties, commonly referred to as the ACID properties, an acronym constructed from the four property names:

1. Atomic: Either all of the activities complete successfully or none are performed. The collection of activities appears to be a single operation.

2. Consistent: The changes made by one activity are consistent with the changes made by another. ...