Liquibase Attributes runInTransaction

Atomicity is a property of a database that ensures that it always follows the all-or-nothing rule for all DML Operations(i.e. insert, update, delete). Atomicity consists of 4 rules, also known as ACID property of Transaction Atomicity, consistency, isolation, and durability. the database considers all Transaction operations as one whole unit. Hence, when a Transactional process happens in the database, it is either executed completely or not executed at all.

ChangeSet in Liquibase can have multiple DML operations. Liquibase provides runInTransaction attribute that governs if the ChangeSet will execute as a single Transaction or not.

By default, all ChangeSet runs in a single Transaction

let's see ChangeSet execution in a Transaction with an example. In the below ChanegeLog the ChangeSet id="1692446190573-1" will create a table and ChangeSet id="1692701200879-2" has 2 DML insert query with an invalid column name in the 2nd insert statement. By default each ChangeSet will execute in Transaction, hence the entire ChangeSet id="1692701200879-2" will not execute and result in error.

<?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<databaseChangeLog xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog" xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext" xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd">
	<changeSet author="wesome" id="1692446190573-1">
		<createTable catalogName="appledb" tableName="apple">
			<column autoIncrement="true" name="apple_id" type="BIGINT">
				<constraints nullable="false" primaryKey="true" />
			</column>
			<column name="apple_name" type="VARCHAR(255)" />
			<column defaultValueComputed="CURRENT_TIMESTAMP" name="current_date_time" type="datetime" />
		</createTable>
	</changeSet>
	<changeSet author="wesome" id="1692701200879-2">
		<insert catalogName="appledb" tableName="apple">
			<column name="apple_name" value="Fuji" />
			<column name="current_date_time" valueDate="now()" />
		</insert>
		<insert catalogName="appledb" tableName="apple">
			<column name="apple_name" value="Gala" />
			<column name="current_date" valueDate="now()" />
		</insert>
	</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

liquibase.properties (update changeLogFile file format with SQL, XML, YAML, JSON as per changelog.mysql.<format>)

changeLogFile=changelog.mysql.xml
liquibase.command.url:jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/AppleDb?createDatabaseIfNotExist=true&autoReconnect=true&useSSL=false&allowPublicKeyRetrieval=true
liquibase.command.username: root
liquibase.command.password: rootroot

Execute the liquibase update command, since ChangeSet id="1692701200879-2" has 1 invalid DML, and by default, it runs in Transaction hence it is either executed completely or not executed at all and will throw an error.

Running Changeset: changelog.mysql.xml::1692446190573-1::wesome
Running Changeset: changelog.mysql.xml::1692701200879-2::wesome
Unexpected error running Liquibase: Migration failed for changeset changelog.mysql.xml::1692701200879-2:

updating ChangeSet id="1692701200879-2" with runInTransaction="false" will not enforce Transaction properties on it, hence, first insert statement will execute perfectly but 2nd will fail

<?xml version="1.1" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?>
<databaseChangeLog xmlns="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog" xmlns:ext="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext" xmlns:pro="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog-ext http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-ext.xsd http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/pro/liquibase-pro-latest.xsd http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog http://www.liquibase.org/xml/ns/dbchangelog/dbchangelog-latest.xsd">
	<changeSet author="wesome" id="1692446190573-1">
		<createTable catalogName="appledb" tableName="apple">
			<column autoIncrement="true" name="apple_id" type="BIGINT">
				<constraints nullable="false" primaryKey="true" />
			</column>
			<column name="apple_name" type="VARCHAR(255)" />
			<column defaultValueComputed="CURRENT_TIMESTAMP" name="current_date_time" type="datetime" />
		</createTable>
	</changeSet>
	<changeSet author="wesome" id="1692701200879-2" runInTransaction="false">
		<insert catalogName="appledb" tableName="apple">
			<column name="apple_name" value="Fuji" />
			<column name="current_date_time" valueDate="now()" />
		</insert>
		<insert catalogName="appledb" tableName="apple">
			<column name="apple_name" value="Gala" />
			<column name="current_date" valueDate="now()" />
		</insert>
	</changeSet>
</databaseChangeLog>

liquibase.properties (update changeLogFile file format with SQL, XML, YAML, JSON as per changelog.mysql.<format>)

changeLogFile=changelog.mysql.xml
liquibase.command.url:jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/AppleDb?createDatabaseIfNotExist=true&autoReconnect=true&useSSL=false&allowPublicKeyRetrieval=true
liquibase.command.username: root
liquibase.command.password: rootroot

execute liquibase update command, it will create table and insert the first record.