== Transactions ==

A typical enterprise application accesses and stores information in one or more databases. Because this information is critical for business operations, it must be accurate, current, and reliable. Data integrity would be lost if multiple programs were allowed to update the same information simultaneously. It would also be lost if a system that failed while processing a business transaction were to leave the affected data only partially updated. By preventing both of these scenarios, software transactions ensure data integrity. Transactions control the concurrent access of data by multiple programs. In the event of a system failure, transactions make sure that after recovery the data will be in a consistent state.

 {{attachment:trans-updatingMultipleDataases.gif}}

In an enterprise bean with ''container-managed transaction demarcation'', the EJB container sets the boundaries of the transactions. You can use container-managed transactions with any type of enterprise bean: session, or message-driven. Container-managed transactions simplify development because the enterprise bean code does not explicitly mark the transaction’s boundaries. The code does not include statements that begin and end the transaction.

In ''bean-managed transaction demarcation'', the code in the session or message-driven bean explicitly marks the boundaries of the transaction. Although beans with container-managed transactions require less coding, they have one limitation: When a method is executing, it can be associated with either a single transaction or no transaction at all. If this limitation will make coding your bean difficult, you should consider using bean-managed transactions.
