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Spring boot #Transactional not rolling back the database inserts

Need some help here, I'm not able to understand why my transactions are not getting rolled back in an event of exception.
I will try to put my code as close to as It is on the project (cannot share on the internet)
This is my Service
#Service
#SL4j
#Transactional(propagation = propagation.SUPPORTS, readOnly=true)
public class PublicationServiceImpl implements PublicationService{
#Autowired
private PartnerRepo partnerRepo;
#Autowired
private FlowRepo flowRepo;
#Autowired
private PubRepo pubRepo;
#Override
#Transactional(propagation = propagation.REQUIRED, rollbackFor=Exception.class)
public int save(Request request) {
try{
int pk_id_partner = partnerRepo.save(request);
int pk_id_flow = flowRepo.save(request);
String publicationCode = generatePubCode(request);
int publicationCode= pubRepo.save(pk_id_partner, pk_id_flow, request);
}
catch(Exception e){
log.error("Exception in saving");
}
return 0;
}
}
This is my Repository (example of 1 , all 3 repos follow same coding standards)
#Repository
#Slf4j
public class PartnerRepo implemets PartnerRepo{
#Autowired
private NamedParamaterJDBCTemplate namedParamaterJDBCTemplate;
//String Declarations .....
private MapSqlParameterSource sqlParameterSource;
#Override
public int save(Request request){
sqlParamatersSource = new MapSqlParameterSource();
//sqlParamatersSource.addValue(.....)
//sqlParamatersSource.addValue(.....)
//sqlParamatersSource.addValue(.....)
return executeQuery();
}
private int executeQuery(){
try{
keyHolder = new GenerateKeyHolder();
namedParamaterJDBCTemplate.update(getInsertQuery(), sqlParamaterSource , kekHolder, new String[]{"pk_id"})
return keyHolder.getKey().intValue();
}catch(Exception e){
log.error("Exception while saving");
return 0;
}
}
}
So the problem is , Consider there is an exception in the method generatePubCode(request); , ideally since I have used #Transactional at class level and method level , The previous 2 repo transactions () should be rolled back right? However it isn't happening, Even After the code is finished execution I can see the records in DB (Postgres DB v10).
Please help figure out this issue , Am I doing something fundamentally wrong ?
Please do let me know in case you need further information that might help here!
P.S: I have tried all permutations of #Transactional , nothing works : ONLY having this in the catch block works! TransactionAspectSupport.currentTransactionStatus().setRollbackOnly();
I wonder If its the right approach for a springBoot project
Thanks in advance for the help!
Edit: as per suggestion made the PublicationServiceSaverImpl.save() public
Best reagards,
Bhargav.

There are several things that break proper transactions in Spring
Your service method is private
You are catching and swallowing exceptions
private method
The fact that your PublicationServiceImpl save method is private basically makes the #Transactional on that method useless. As a private method cannot be proxied, no transactions will apply. Even if it would be public it wouldn't work as you are calling the method from within the same object, hence the transactionality of that method applies.
To fix, make your method public and call the save method from an other class (or make the actual method that is calling save have the proper #Transactional.
The fact that is doesn't work is due to the type op AOP being used, by default Spring will use proxies and this is a drawback of using proxy based AOP.
Another solution to make it work with private methods is to switch to full-blown AspectJ with either compile-time or load-time weaving of the classes. Both require additional setup and that can be tedious.
Catch and swallow exceptions
You have in both your repository as well as your service a try/catch block. Each of those catches and swallows the exceptions (they are logged but not re-thrown).
For transactions to work properly it needs to see the exceptions. The fact that you are catching and swallowing them, makes the transaction aspect not see them and instead of doing a rollback, do a commit. For the transaction aspect everything is ok because there was no exception.
To fix, remove either the try/catch or rethrow the exceptions.

Annotations in general never work on methods called from the same class because of how proxies are created in Spring.
It has nothing to do with #Transaction in particular but with the fact that your methods is private and called from the within same object.
Please make the method public and move the #Transactional method in a separate class annoted with #Service and called it from outside of the instance of the class
#Service
public class PublicationServiceSaverImpl {
#Transactional
**public** int save(Request request) {
...
}
}
You must call the save method from outside of the class PublicationServiceSaverImpl, maybe from PublicationServiceImpl.

The method PublicationServiceImpl.save must be public if you want to use #Transactional.
As per Spring Documentation:
When you use transactional proxies with Spring’s standard configuration, you should apply the #Transactional annotation only to methods with public visibility. If you do annotate protected, private, or package-visible methods with the #Transactional annotation, no error is raised, but the annotated method does not exhibit the configured transactional settings.

First of all: make your method public.
Second: you have to throw the exception. If you catch and not rethrow it, how do you expect the transactional processing to know that an error occured and then rollback?
You have two options: throw the Exception instead of catching it, or catch, do some further processing and then rethrow it.
So in your repository, just add a throws keyword and then rethrow the exception after the log statement:
public int executeQuery() throws Exception {
try {
keyHolder = new GenerateKeyHolder();
namedParamaterJDBCTemplate.update(getInsertQuery(), sqlParamaterSource, kekHolder, new String[] {
"pk_id"
})
return keyHolder.getKey().intValue();
} catch(Exception e) {
log.error("Exception while saving");
throw e;
}
}
Now, for your service:
Example 1 - use the throws keyword to propagate the checked exception:
#Override
#Transactional(propagation = propagation.REQUIRED, rollbackFor = Exception.class)
public int save(Request request) throws Exception {
int pk_id_partner = partnerRepo.save(request);
int pk_id_flow = flowRepo.save(request);
String publicationCode = generatePubCode(request);
int publicationCode = pubRepo.save(pk_id_partner, pk_id_flow, request);
return 0;
}
Example 2 - catch and rethrow it as an RuntimeException, which is unchecked.
#Override
#Transactional(propagation = propagation.REQUIRED)
public int save(Request request) {
try {
int pk_id_partner = partnerRepo.save(request);
int pk_id_flow = flowRepo.save(request);
String publicationCode = generatePubCode(request);
int publicationCode = pubRepo.save(pk_id_partner, pk_id_flow, request);
} catch(Exception ex) {
throw new RuntimeException(ex);
}
return 0;
}
Note that the second example doesn't need the rollbackFor argument to the #Transactional. By default, a transaction is rolled back if a unchecked exception occurs, so there's no need to explicitly use rollbackFor in cases of RuntimeExceptions.

Another verification that would have to be done if the solution does not work. It is to verify that the database tables allow the rollback. For this, the engine has to be in InnoDB and not in MyISAM and others.

In my case adding #EnableTransactionManagement annotation on Application class resolved the issue

In stead of #Transactional(propagation = propagation.REQUIRED provide #Transactional(propagation = propagation.REQUIRED_NEW
If you use the latter, it will use the parent transaction boundary, which is at class level.
And you don't need explicitly state rollbackFor=Exception.class. By default spring will roll back on exception
And do change private to public
Try this out

How can I abort saving an entity within a method annotated with onBeforeSave of a class that extends AbstractRepositoryEventListener?

I am extending AbstractRepositoryEventListener in order to create a md5 hash of an photo and save it with the object.
I'd like to abort saving the photo altogether in the event of an exception.
#Component
public class MyHandler extends AbstractRepositoryEventListener<Photo> {
#Autowired
PhotoService photoService;
#Override
public void onBeforeSave(Photo photo) {
File originalPhoto = new File(foto.getUriOriginal());
try {
String hash = photoService.getHash(originalPhoto);
photo.setHash(hash);
} catch ( IOException | NoSuchAlgorithmException e ) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

You may throw an instance of RuntimeException. It will get Spring to rollback.
There are other more comprehensive ways, details of which you can find here.

If someone ever have this same problem, here's a better approach.
The goal here is basically to validate an entity.
Spring already provides a ValidatingRepositoryEventListener that uses validators to achieve this goal. Not only will the saving be "aborted", but also the error message will be provided to the client.
It is important to notice that automatic discovery of validators seem to have a bug with a workaround described here.
It is also possible to create custom validation annotations, as described in the link below, resulting in a more reusable code.
In this particular instance, the Validator would look something like this:
#Component("beforeSavePhotoValidator")
public class PhotoValidator implements Validator {
#Override
public boolean supports(Class<?> clazz) {
return Photo.class.equals(clazz);
}
#Override
public void validate(Object obj, Errors errors) {
if (customValidationIsInvalid(obj)){
errors.rejectValue(
"<invalidFieldName>",
"<errorMessageCode>"
);
}
}
}
Observe that:
customValidationIsInvalid, invalidFieldName and errorMessageCode should be appropriately implemented
the errorMessageCode must be set in the ValidationMessages.properties file
the workaround must be implemented, or the validator manually registered

Spring-AOP pointcut not working?

Below is my code snippet:
ServiceImpl.java
#Service
public class ServiceImpl implements Service {
private Response worker(Audit send) throws ArgumentException {
System.out.println("STEP_1");
worker(send.getRequest(), send.getId());
}
private Response worker(Request request, String id) throws ArgumentException {
System.out.println("STEP_2");
try {
//throwing some exception
} catch (Exception e) {
System.out.println("STEP_3");
}
}
}
Now, what I want is whenever NullPointerException is being thrown from method worker(Request request, String id) as shown above I want to perform some specific task. For that I have written an Aspect class which is following:
MyAspect.java
#Aspect
#Component
public class MyAspect{
#Pointcut("com.xyz.myapp.ServiceImpl.worker() && args(request,..)")
private void someOperation(Request request) {}
#Before("someOperation(request)")
public void process(Request request) {
System.out.println("SUCCESS");
}
#AfterThrowing("com.xyz.myapp.ServiceImpl.worker() && args(request,..)")
public void doRecoveryActions() {
System.out.println("EXCEPTION_SUCCESS");
}
}
Current Output:
STEP_1
STEP_2
STEP_3
Desired Output:
STEP_1
STEP_2
STEP_3
SUCCESS
EXCEPTION_SUCCESS
As you can see MyAspect.java is not getting triggered hence NOT printing values.
What can be the reason for this?
Note:
I tried making worker as public classes too but it didn't work.
Also tried changing the name of the methods to eliminate any overloading issue that too didn't work.
Tried various other pointcut expressions all in vain as of now.
In my application there are other aspect classes working absolutely fine.

You made a typical Spring AOP beginner's mistake: You assume that it works for private methods, but as the documentation clearly says, it does not. Spring AOP is based on dynamic proxies, and those only work for public methods when implementing interfaces via JDK proxies and additionally for protected and package-scoped methods when using CGLIB proxies.
You should make the worker() method public if you want to intercept it from an aspect.
P.S.: Full-fledged AspectJ also works for private methods, but to switch to another AOP framework would be overkill here.
Update: You also have other problems in your code:
The first worker method, even if you make it public, does not return anything. The last statement should be return worker(send.getRequest(), send.getId());, not just worker(send.getRequest(), send.getId());.
Your pointcut com.xyz.myapp.ServiceImpl.worker() will never match because it has an empty argument list, but your method has arguments. The args() does not help you here.
The syntax of your pointcut is also wrong because it does not specify a return type for the method, not even *. Furthermore, the method name itself is not enough, it should be enclosed in an actual pointcut type such as execution(). I.e. you want to write something like:
#Pointcut("execution(* com.xyz.myapp.ServiceImpl.worker(..)) && args(request, ..)")
private void someOperation(Request request) {}

To intercept a method that throws an exception you can use this code (works only if methods are public):
#AfterThrowing(pointcut="com.xyz.myapp.SystemArchitecture.dataAccessOperation()",throwing="ex")
public void doRecoveryActions(NullPointerException ex) {
// ...
}
Source: Spring AOP

In Junit, how to prevent from printing expected exception which is thrown intentionally and caught already in log?

I guess this is a junit and Logback problem. In my project, Logging is done through slf4j. The logging implementation is Logback.
So I have a class:
#Component
#Slf4j
public class A {
private final ObjectMapper objectMapper = new ObjectMapper();
private static final String DEFAULT_REPLY = "just continue...";
public String doSomething(Object value) {
try {
return objectMapper.methodAbc(value);
} catch (JPException e) {
log.error("Exception while processing value", e);
return DEFAULT_REPLY;
}
}
}
and its test class
#RunWith(MockitoJUnitRunner.class)
public class ATest {
#Before
public void init() {
processor = new A();
}
#Test
public void test() throws Exception {
ObjectMapper mockMapper = mock(ObjectMapper.class);
JP mockJp = mock(JP.class);
Exception thrownException = new JPException(mockJp, null);
when(mockMapper.methodAbc(any())).thenThrow(thrownException);
String result = processor.doSomething("abc");
assertTrue(result.equals("just continue..."));
}
}
I don't have any problem with the test itself. Just as you can see, in the test, the JPException will be printing out on the log, because it's intentionally thrown.
When I debug through logs, there're too many this kind of expected exceptions, I'm just wondering is there a way to remove them from logs? And of course still print other exceptions which is not expected.

Logback has the functionality to support filters and evaluations based on certain logic.
This link is probably what you could be looking for :
https://logback.qos.ch/manual/layouts.html#Evaluators
You can configure your logback to do or not do certain action if it is an instance of any exceptio - in your case JPException

Try this:
Create a mock for the log.
Inject the mock into the class being tested.
Assert that the error method on the mocked log object was called.

Spring MVC: bind an exception handler to particular method

Good day!
I have a #Controller. Some of its methods throw the same exception, but I want to handle this exceptions in different way.
Is there a way how to bind an #ExceptionHandler to a particular method?

You need to use AOP tools like CDI Interceptor or AspectJ to achieve this cross-cutting concerns. A Concern is a term that refers to a part of the system divided on the basis of the functionality.
Basically this type of feature is used to handle logging, security and also handling the errors... which are not part of your business logic...
Like if you want to change the logger for application from log4j to sl4j then you need to go through each and every classes where you have used log4j and change it. But if you have used AOP tools then you only need to go the interceptor class and change the implementation. Something like plug and play and very powerful tool.
Here is a code snippet using JavaEE CDI Interceptor
/*
Creating the interceptor binding
*/
#InterceptorBinding
#Retention(RUNTIME)
#Target({TYPE, METHOD})
public #interface BindException {
}
After we have define interceptor binding we need to define interceptor binding implementation
/*
Creating the interceptor implementation
*/
#Interceptor
#BindException
public class ExceptionCDIInterceptor {
#AroundInvoke
public Object methodInterceptor(InvocationContext ctx) throws Exception {
System.out.println("Invoked method " + ctx.getMethod().getName());
try {
return ctx.proceed(); // this line will try to execute your method
// and if the method throw the exception it will be caught
} catch (Exception ex) {
// here you can check for your expected exception
// code for Exception handler
}
}
}
Now we only need to apply interceptor to our method
/*
Some Service class where you want to implement the interceptor
*/
#ApplicationScoped
public class Service {
// adding annotation to thisMethodIsBound method to intercept
#BindException
public String thisMethodIsBound(String uid) {
// codes....
// if this block throw some exception then it will be handled by try catch block
// from ExceptionCDIInterceptor
}
}
You can achieve same feature using AspectJ also.
/*
Creating the Aspect implementation
*/
#Aspect
public class ExceptionAspectInterceptor {
#Around("execution(* com.package.name.SomeService.thisMethodIsBound.*(..))")
public Object methodInterceptor(ProceedingJoinPoint ctx) throws Throwable {
System.out.println("Invoked method " + ctx.getSignature().getName());
try {
return ctx.proceed(); // this line will try to execute your method
// and if the method throw the exception it will be caught
} catch (Exception ex) {
// here you can check for your expected exception
// codes for Exception handler
}
}
}
Now we only need to enable the AspectJ to our application config
/*
Enable the AspectJ in your application
*/
#Configuration
#EnableAspectJAutoProxy
public class AppConfig {
#Bean
public SomeService SomeService() {
return new SomeService();
}
}
/*
Some Service class where you want to implement the Aspect
*/
package com.package.name;
public class SomeService {
public String thisMethodIsBound(String uid) {
// codes....
// if this block throw some exception then it will be handled by try catch block
// from ExceptionAspectInterceptor
}
}
I have code example in my git repo https://github.com/prameshbhattarai/javaee-exceptionBinding by using CDI interceptor.

Just as an option (obviously, it's not ideal): you can wrap the exception into a custom exception in one of your methods and then catch it in an #ExceptionHandler
void boo() throws WrappingException {
try {
} catch (TargetException e) {
throw new WrappingException(e);
}
}
then
#ExceptionHandler(WrappingException.class)
public void handleWrappingException() {
// handle
}
#ExceptionHandler(TargetException.class)
public void handleTargetException() {
// handle
}

Could you please explain why do you need this? I'm asking out of curiosity, because I've never felt like this is required and here is why:
Exception usually represents a very specific "mistake" - something that went wrong in a very specific way.
Basically, exception represents a mistake, not a flow...
There are two "degrees of freedom" that spring can support out of the box:
Exception parameters. Maybe stuff like error code, which can be declared as a data field of exception itself.
Exception inheritance. Example:
If you have in your system a UserDoesNotExistException and you want to be more specific in a case of say, the system that manages the users that are retired in some flows, you can always create a more specific exception:
class UserRetiredException extends UserDoesNotExistException {...}
Obviously, spring can support both the cases: In ExceptionMapper you have the access to the exception anyway so you can do something like:
handleException(SomeExceptionWithErrorCode ex) {
if(ex.getErrorCode() == "A") {
// do this
}
else if(ex.getErrroCode() == "B") {
// do that
}
}
In the second case you just have different exception mappers for the different types of exceptions.
You can also consider #ControllerAdvice annotation to reuse code or something.

I don't think you can specify a specific #ExceptionHandler for a method, but you can bind an #ExceptionHandler method to a specific Exception.
So if you want to handle all DataIntegrityViolationException one way and all other Exceptions in another you should be able to achieve that with something like this:
#ExceptionHandler(DataIntegrityViolationException.class)
public void handleIntegrityViolation() {
// do stuff for integrity violation here
}
#ExceptionHandler(Exception.class)
public void handleEverythingElse() {
// do stuff for everything else here
}

You can derive sub-exceptions from the common exception thrown by other methods according to how you want to handle them.
Say you have declared the parent exception as ParentException. Derive sub classes like ChildAException extends ParentException, ChildBException extends ParentException etc.
Define a #ControllerAdvice class that catches the ParentException and define the specific behaviors in delegate methods.
#ControllerAdvice
public class ParentExceptionHandler {
#ExceptionHandler(ParentException.class)
public ResponseEntity<Object> handleParentException(ParentException pe) {
if (pe instanceof ChildAException) {
return handleChildAException((ChildAException) pe);
} else if (...) {
...
} else {
// handle parent exception
}
}
private ResponseEntity<Object> handleChildAException(ChildAException cae) {
// handle child A exception
}
}

I just got the same issue like you. So I checked the spring source code for this situation. It seems that spring will search in the #Controller class for any method that is annotated with #ExceptionHandler first, if nothing matched then it will continue to search for all class that is annotated with #ControllerAdvice. So you can just use the strategy below:
MyController with a #ExceptionHandler method:
#RestController
public class MyController {
#RequestMapping("/foo")
public String foo() {
throw new IllegalArgumentException();
}
#ExceptionHandler(IllegalArgumentException.class)
public ResponseEntity<String> handle(IllegalArgumentException ex) {
return new ResponseEntity<>("Specific handler", HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST);
}
}
AnotherController without any method annotated with #ExceptionHandler:
#RestController
public class AnotherController {
#RequestMapping("/bar")
public String bar() {
throw new IllegalArgumentException();
}
}
A global #ControllerAdvice class:
#ControllerAdvice
public class GlobalExceptionHandler {
#ExceptionHandler(IllegalArgumentException.class)
public ResponseEntity<String> handle(IllegalArgumentException ex) {
return new ResponseEntity<>("Global handler", HttpStatus.BAD_REQUEST);
}
}
Then if you visiting http://ip:port/foo, you will get 400 status code with Specific handler, and 400 status code with Global handler when you visit http://ip:port/bar.

I agree that the inability to map a specific #ExceptionHandler to handle only one specific method in the #RestController should be a very desirable feature.

I tried try{}catch(Exception ex){} and catch no exception. But
exception handler handles it nicely.
Since we are talking about hibernate exceptions, these exceptions are usually thrown at the commit phase of transaction. The problem here is that seems like you have transaction opened right in your controller which is considered as a bad practice.
What you should do is - open transaction in the application layer.
Controller just maps xml/json to incomming RequestDto object.
And then you call the Service to handle the business logic.
The Service(or its method) should be annotated by #Transactional.
#RestController
public class MyController {
#Autowired // but better to use constructor injection
private MyService myService;
public ResponseDto doSomething(RequestDto request) {
try {
myService.doSomething(request);
} catch (DataIntegrityViolationException ex) {
// process exception
}
}
}
#Transactional
class MyService {
public void doSomething() {
// do your processing which uses jpa/hibernate under the hood
}
}
Once you done that, the try catch will start behaving as expected on controller level.
However, I would even go further as DatabaseExeption shouldn't really go that far to controller. The alternative would be to use manual transaction inside of a service and do a try catch there.
Then in the Service layer transform database exception in a more generic exception with all necessary information for controllers to process.
And then you should catch that more generic exception (MyDatabaseAccessException) in the controller and transform as you wish for the sake of a presentation layer.
===
The #ControllerAdvice suggested here is good for a global exception handling across controllers.
The #ExceptionHandler is not suitable for each method unless you wnat to have controller per method. And even after that it can clash with global #ControllerAdvice.
I am not sure why spring doesn't allow #ExceptionHandler at a method level, it would simplify a lot of cases like yours.

My solution is to annotate a method with a marker:
#ExceptionHandler(SomeException.class)
public ResponseEntity<String> handleSomeException(SomeException e, HandlerMethod handlerMethod) {
var marker = AnnotatedElementUtils.findMergedAnnotation(handlerMethod.getMethod(), MarkerAnnotation.class);
if (marker != null) return something();
else return somethingElse();
}