How do you get around multiple database connections inside a TransactionScope if MSDTC is disabled?

Question

I have a web application that issues requests to 3 databases in the DAL. I\'m writing some integration tests to make sure that the overall functionality round trip actually

Answer 1

1. Set Enlist=false on connection string to avoid auto enlistment on transaction.

2. Manually enlist connection as participants in transaction scope. (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms172153%28v=VS.80%29.aspx)

Answer 2

If you don't want to use MSDTC you can use SQL transactions directly.

See SqlConnection.BeginTransaction().

Answer 3

Ok, I found a way around this issue. The only reason I'm doing it this way is because I couldn't find ANY other way to fix this problem, and because it's in my integration tests, so I'm not concerned about this having adverse effects in production code.

I had to add a property to my DataContext to act as a flag to keep track of whether or not to dispose of the connection object when my DataContext is being disposed. This way, the connection is kept alive throughout the entire transaction scope, and therefore no longer bothers DTC

Here's sample of my new Dispose:

internal static bool SupressConnectionDispose { get; set; }

public void Dispose()
{
   if (Connection.State == ConnectionState.Open)
   {
       Connection.ChangeDatabase(
           DatabaseInfo.GetDatabaseName(OriginalDatabase));
   }

   if (Connection != null 
       && --ConnectionReferences <= 0 
       && !SuppressConnectionDispose)
   {
       if (Connection.State == ConnectionState.Open)
           Connection.Close();
       Connection.Dispose();
   }
}

this allows my integration tests to take the form of:

[Test]
public void WorkflowExampleTest()
{
    (using var transaction = new TransactionScope())
    {
        DataContext.SuppressConnectionDispose = true;

        Presenter.ProcessWorkflow();
    }
}

I would not recommend utilizing this in production code, but for integration tests I think it is appropriate. Also keep in mind this only works for connections where the server is always the same, as well as the user.

I hope this helps anyone else who runs into the same problem I had.