JOTDF: Java Open Demarcation Framework

Overview

JOTDF is a framework for defining Transaction Demarcation Policies.

Transaction Demarcation is a way for guaranteeing the transactional context of an invocation. Basically, the transaction policies evaluate if a method should be invoked under an active transaction or not.

This framework provides a library of configurable TD policies. It addresses the problem of transaction demarcation over any transactional monitor and is usable from any component-oriented platform.

OTDF is divided into three parts which are the policies, the domains and the transaction manager wrappers. The policies level considers the types of policies defined in platform specifications (EJB, CCM, etc). The transaction manager wrappers level groups the abstractions for the different models of transactional monitors (OTS, JTS, WS-T, etc). The domains level considers the interactions between a policy and a transaction manager.

The framework is open in order to integrate new TD policies and to cover unexplored domains of transaction demarcation. It provides mechanisms and methods for facilitating this integration.

From a technical point of view, the framework provides an object-oriented and a component-oriented vision of the TD policies.

Download

The last version of JOTDF is available in the JOTM CVS repository in the jotdf module.

Forum

In the context of the Osmose ITEA Project, a Forum dealing with the Transaction Framework is available here. You can use this forum for getting news about the evolution of the Transaction Framework and its implementation called GoTM and posting your requests.

More details

R. Rouvoy and P. Merle. Abstraction of Transaction Demarcation in Component-Oriented Platforms. In Proceedings of the fourth ACM/IFIP/USENIX International Middleware Conference (Middleware'03), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, June 2003.

Related links

Transaction Processing - an extensive list of publications