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Enterprise intermediate

Manual JPA Transaction vs Declarative @Transactional

Replace verbose begin/commit/rollback blocks with a single @Transactional annotation.

Code Comparison
✕ Java EE 
@PersistenceContext
EntityManager em;

public void transferFunds(Long from, Long to,
                          BigDecimal amount) {
    EntityTransaction tx = em.getTransaction();
    tx.begin();
    try {
        Account src = em.find(Account.class, from);
        Account dst = em.find(Account.class, to);
        src.debit(amount);
        dst.credit(amount);
        tx.commit();
    } catch (Exception e) {
        tx.rollback();
        throw e;
    }
}
✓ Jakarta EE 8+ 
@ApplicationScoped
public class AccountService {
    @PersistenceContext
    EntityManager em;

    @Transactional
    public void transferFunds(Long from, Long to,
                              BigDecimal amount) {
        Account src = em.find(Account.class, from);
        Account dst = em.find(Account.class, to);
        src.debit(amount);
        dst.credit(amount);
    }
}
Why the modern way wins
🗑️

No boilerplate

One annotation replaces repetitive begin/commit/rollback try-catch blocks.

🛡️

Safer rollback

The container guarantees rollback on unchecked exceptions — no risk of forgetting the catch block.

📐

Declarative control

Propagation, isolation, and rollback rules are expressed as annotation attributes.

Old Approach
Manual Transaction
Modern Approach
@Transactional
Since JDK
11
Difficulty
intermediate
JDK Support
Manual JPA Transaction vs Declarative @Transactional
Available

Widely available since Jakarta EE 8 / Java 11

How it works

Manual transaction management requires explicit begin(), commit(), and rollback() calls wrapped in try-catch blocks — every service method repeats this boilerplate. The @Transactional annotation delegates lifecycle management to the container: it begins a transaction before the method, commits on success, and rolls back on RuntimeException automatically.

Related Documentation
Jakarta Transactions Specification ↗ Jakarta Transactions 2.0 API ↗
Related patterns
Enterprise intermediate

EJB versus CDI

Java EE
@Stateless
public class OrderEJB {
    @EJB
    private InventoryEJB inventory;

    public void placeOrder(Order order) {
        // container-managed transaction
        inventory.reserve(order.getItem());
    }
}
Jakarta EE 8+
@ApplicationScoped
public class OrderService {
    @Inject
    private InventoryService inventory;

    @Transactional
    public void placeOrder(Order order) {
        inventory.reserve(order.getItem());
    }
}
Hover to see modern ➜
JDK 11+ →
Enterprise intermediate

JDBC versus JPA

Java EE
String sql = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ?";
try (Connection con = dataSource.getConnection();
     PreparedStatement ps =
             con.prepareStatement(sql)) {
    ps.setLong(1, id);
    ResultSet rs = ps.executeQuery();
    if (rs.next()) {
        User u = new User();
        u.setId(rs.getLong("id"));
        u.setName(rs.getString("name"));
    }
}
Jakarta EE 8+
@PersistenceContext
EntityManager em;

public User findUser(Long id) {
    return em.find(User.class, id);
}

public List<User> findByName(String name) {
    return em.createQuery(
        "SELECT u FROM User u WHERE u.name = :name",
        User.class)
        .setParameter("name", name)
        .getResultList();
}
Hover to see modern ➜
JDK 11+ →
Enterprise intermediate

JPA versus Jakarta Data

Jakarta EE 8+
@PersistenceContext
EntityManager em;

public User findById(Long id) {
    return em.find(User.class, id);
}

public List<User> findByName(String name) {
    return em.createQuery(
        "SELECT u FROM User u WHERE u.name = :name",
        User.class)
        .setParameter("name", name)
        .getResultList();
}

public void save(User user) {
    em.persist(user);
}
Jakarta EE 11+
@Repository
public interface Users extends CrudRepository<User, Long> {
    List<User> findByName(String name);
}
Hover to see modern ➜
JDK 21+ →
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