Restriction: This topic applies only when a Database Connectors license has been installed via the
Micro Focus License Management System.
Applications that are written for transaction management systems, or that perform work in small
operation-based logical units, benefit greatly from Oracle's transaction management systems. Applications that are not written for transaction management encounter difficulty with record locking when operating against a system that enforces transaction management.
The difficulty can occur with an application that is performing more than one logical task at a time. Any operation that modifies or reads data in an I/O mode without the WITH NO LOCK phrase causes a lock to be placed in the database system. As a result, the application may have many more record locks present than would be expected by the normal rule of COBOL file locking. The application would act similarly to when the LOCKS ON MULTIPLE RECORDS clause in COBOL is used. This can best be illustrated by an example:
- The user is entering a customer's order.
- As each line item is entered into the order, the inventory file is modified to reflect that items have been removed from the stock on hand.
- The user must switch to a different part of the application to perform a different task, perhaps as a result of a phone call from a new customer.
- All of the records that were locked, or modified, by the application before the switch remain locked because the first order is not complete. No COMMIT or ROLLBACK has been issued to complete the transaction. All of the records locked by the transaction remain locked until the application ends the transaction.
- Because one order is open and not yet committed, other applications may be locked out of certain order items if they are still locked by the processing of the first order. The second order entry may be held up until the first order is completed.
- Note that the first application is not locked out. A process can read its own locked records.
