When a non-database exception is thrown out of a `withEntityManager`
block, always check if the session needs to be rolled back.
This means if a database error is caught and a new non-database error is
thrown out of the `withEntityManager` block, the transaction is still
rolled back. The flow can then continue progressing as normal.
* CORDA-3722 withEntityManager can rollback its session
Improve the handling of database transactions when using
`withEntityManager` inside a flow.
Extra changes have been included to improve the safety and
correctness of Corda around handling database transactions.
This focuses on allowing flows to catch errors that occur inside an
entity manager and handle them accordingly.
Errors can be caught in two places:
- Inside `withEntityManager`
- Outside `withEntityManager`
Further changes have been included to ensure that transactions are
rolled back correctly.
Errors caught inside `withEntityManager` require the flow to manually
`flush` the current session (the entity manager's individual session).
By manually flushing the session, a `try-catch` block can be placed
around the `flush` call, allowing possible exceptions to be caught.
Once an error is thrown from a call to `flush`, it is no longer possible
to use the same entity manager to trigger any database operations. The
only possible option is to rollback the changes from that session.
The flow can continue executing updates within the same session but they
will never be committed. What happens in this situation should be handled
by the flow. Explicitly restricting the scenario requires a lot of effort
and code. Instead, we should rely on the developer to control complex
workflows.
To continue updating the database after an error like this occurs, a new
`withEntityManager` block should be used (after catching the previous
error).
Exceptions can be caught around `withEntityManager` blocks. This allows
errors to be handled in the same way as stated above, except the need to
manually `flush` the session is removed. `withEntityManager` will
automatically `flush` a session if it has not been marked for rollback
due to an earlier error.
A `try-catch` can then be placed around the whole of the
`withEntityManager` block, allowing the error to be caught while not
committing any changes to the underlying database transaction.
To make `withEntityManager` blocks work like mini database transactions,
save points have been utilised. A new savepoint is created when opening
a `withEntityManager` block (along with a new session). It is then used
as a reference point to rollback to if the session errors and needs to
roll back. The savepoint is then released (independently from
completing successfully or failing).
Using save points means, that either all the statements inside the
entity manager are executed, or none of them are.
- A new session is created every time an entity manager is requested,
but this does not replace the flow's main underlying database session.
- `CordaPersistence.transaction` can now determine whether it needs
to execute its extra error handling code. This is needed to allow errors
escape `withEntityManager` blocks while allowing some of our exception
handling around subscribers (in `NodeVaultService`) to continue to work.
## Summary
This change deals with multiple issues:
* Errors that occur during flow initialisation.
* Errors that occur when handling the outcome of an existing flow error.
* Failures to rollback and close a database transaction when an error
occurs in `TransitionExecutorImpl`.
* Removal of create and commit transaction actions around retrying a flow.
## Errors that occur during flow initialisation
Flow initialisation has been moved into the try/catch that exists inside
`FlowStateMachineImpl.run`. This means if an error is thrown all the way
out of `initialiseFlow` (which should rarely happen) it will be caught
and move into a flow's standard error handling path. The flow should
then properly terminate.
`Event.Error` was changed to make the choice to rollback be optional.
Errors during flow initialisation cause the flow to not have a open
database transaction. Therefore there is no need to rollback.
## Errors that occur when handling the outcome of an existing flow error
When an error occurs a flow goes to the flow hospital and is given an
outcome event to address the original error. If the transition that was
processing the error outcome event (`StartErrorPropagation` and
`RetryFlowFromSafePoint`) has an error then the flow aborts and
nothing happens. This means that the flow is left in a runnable state.
To resolve this, we now retry the original error outcome event whenever
another error occurs doing so.
This is done by adding a new staff member that looks for
`ErrorStateTransitionException` thrown in the error code path of
`TransitionExecutorImpl`. It then takes the last outcome for that flow
and schedules it to run again. This scheduling runs with a backoff.
This means that a flow will continually retry the original error outcome
event until it completes it successfully.
## Failures to rollback and close a database transaction when an error occurs in `TransitionExecutorImpl`
Rolling back and closing the database transaction inside of
`TransitionExecutorImpl` is now done inside individual try/catch blocks
as this should not prevent the flow from continuing.
## Removal of create and commit transaction actions around retrying a flow
The database commit that occurs after retrying a flow can fail which
required some custom code just for that event to prevent inconsistent
behaviour. The transaction was only needed for reading checkpoints from
the database, therefore the transaction was moved into
`retryFlowFromSafePoint` instead and the commit removed.
If we need to commit data inside of `retryFlowFromSafePoint` in the
future, a commit should be added directly to `retryFlowFromSafePoint`.
The commit should occur before the flow is started on a new fiber.
Only hit the database if `StateMachineState.isAnyCheckpointPersisted`
returns true. Otherwise, there will be no checkpoint to retrieve from the
database anyway. This can prevent errors due to a transient loss of
connection to the database.
