Transactions

Lucid has first-class support for transactions and save points. You can create a new transaction by calling the db.transaction method.

import db from '@adonisjs/lucid/services/db'
const trx = await db.transaction()

Just like the db module. You can also use the trx object to create a query builder instance.

Insert

await trx.insertQuery().table('users').insert({ username: 'virk' })

Select

await trx.query().select('*').from('users')

Once done executing the query, you must commit or rollback the transaction. Otherwise, the queries will hang until timeout.

Following is a complete example of using transactions with an insert query.

const trx = await db.transaction()

try {
  await trx.insertQuery().table('users').insert({ username: 'virk' })

  await trx.commit()
} catch (error) {
  await trx.rollback()
}

Managed transactions

The above example expects you have to manually commit or rollback transactions by wrapping your code inside a try/catch block. A managed transaction does this automatically for you.

You can create a managed transaction by passing a callback to the transaction method.

The transaction auto commits after executing the callback.
If a callback raises an exception, the transaction will be rolled back automatically and re-throws the exception.

await db.transaction(async (trx) => {
  await trx.insertQuery().table('users').insert({ username: 'virk' })
})

You can also return a value from the callback and then access it at the top-level scope. For example:

const userId = await db.transaction(async (trx) => {
  const response = await trx.insertQuery().table('users').insert({ username: 'virk' })

  return response[0] // 👈 return value
})

Isolation levels

You can define the isolation level of a transaction when calling the db.transaction method.

await db.transaction({
  isolationLevel: 'read uncommitted',
})

Following is an example of defining the isolation level with a managed transaction.

await db.transaction(
  async (trx) => {
    // use trx here
  },
  {
    isolationLevel: 'read committed',
  }
)

Following is the list of available isolation levels.

read uncommitted
read committed
snapshot
repeatable read
serializable

Savepoints

Every time you create a nested transaction, Lucid behind the scenes creates a new savepoint. Since transactions need a dedicated connection, using savepoints reduces the number of required connections.

import db from '@adonisjs/lucid/services/db'

// Transaction is created
const trx = await db.transaction()

// This time, a save point is created
const savepoint = await trx.transaction()

// also rollbacks the savepoint
await trx.rollback()

Using transaction with database query builder

The transactions API is not only limited to creating a query builder instance from a transaction object. You can also pass it around to existing query builder instances or models.

During inserts

import db from '@adonisjs/lucid/services/db'

const trx = await db.transaction()

await db
  .insertQuery({ client: trx })
  .table('users')
  .insert({ username: 'virk' })

await trx.commit()

During select, update or delete

import db from '@adonisjs/lucid/services/db'

const trx = await db.transaction()

await db
  .query({ client: trx })
  .from('users')
  .where('id', 1)
  .update(payload)

await trx.commit()

Using transactions with Lucid models

You can pass the transaction to a model instance using the useTransaction method.

In the model class, you can access the transaction object using the this.$trx property. The property is only available during an ongoing transaction. After commit or rollback, it will be reset to undefined.

import User from '#models/user'
import db from '@adonisjs/lucid/services/db'

await db.transaction(async (trx) => {
  const user = new User()
  user.username = 'virk'

  user.useTransaction(trx)
  await user.save()
})

Model query builder

Just like the standard query builder, you can also pass the transaction to the model query builder.

import db from '@adonisjs/lucid/services/db'
import User from '#models/user'

const trx = await db.transaction()

const users = await User
  .query({ client: trx })
  .where('is_active', true)

Persisting relationships inside a transaction

The most common use case for transactions is to persist relationships. Consider the following example of creating a new user and their profile by wrapping them inside a single transaction.

import db from '@adonisjs/lucid/services/db'
import User from '#models/user'

await db.transaction(async (trx) => {
  const user = new User()
  user.username = 'virk'

  user.useTransaction(trx)
  await user.save()

  /**
   * The relationship will implicitly reference the
   * transaction from the user instance
   */
  await user.related('profile').create({
    fullName: 'Harminder Virk',
    avatar: 'some-url.jpg',
  })
})

In the following example we fetch an existing user and create a new profile for them.

import db from '@adonisjs/lucid/services/db'
import User from '#models/user'

await db.transaction(async (trx) => {
  const user = await User.findOrFail(1, { client: trx })

  /**
   * The relationship will implicitly reference the
   * transaction from the user instance
   */
  await user.related('profile').create({
    fullName: 'Harminder Virk',
    avatar: 'some-url.jpg',
  })
})