Multiple WCF service calls in ACID transaction

Question

Here's my scenario: I need to make three or four calls to different WCF services before completing the transaction - what are my options, if any?

ServiceA.SaveWork(work1);
ServiceB.SaveWork(work2);
ServiceC.SaveWork(work3);
ServiceD.SendNotification(notification);

If one call fails, all fail... Note that these services may not be in the same domain.

Cheers!

Answer 1

You should be able to wrap those into a System.Transctions.TransactionScope to achieve this:

using(TransactionScope scope = new TransactionScope())
{
   ServiceA.SaveWork(work1);
   ServiceB.SaveWork(work2);
   ServiceC.SaveWork(work3);
   ServiceD.SendNotification(notification);

   scope.Complete();
}

Of course, you need to make sure your WCF services don't explicitly prevent being part of a transaction! (check out the TransactionFlow attribute - avoid the TransactionFlow.NotAllowed setting!)

Answer 2

If these services are all on different machines etc, using two phase commit will lead to lots of real world problems.

Therefore I don’t think transactions are a good solution....

I think you need to make all your services so you can undo the work if needed to recover from an error. Undoing a item of work can be very complex in the real world.

E.g If you need to book a car and a hotel and then the hotel burns down, you can’t expect to be able to un-book the car without losing some money.

However if all the services sit on top of the same database, then transactions may work well for you.