PHP PDO Library - Beginning a Transaction

Method for Starting a Transaction (begin_transaction)

The beginTransaction() method is the first step in executing more complex operations where we must ensure that all SQL commands are executed as a single unit. When you call this method in your library, you instruct the database to turn off automatic committing of changes. This allows you to safely roll back all changes in case of any error before they can permanently affect your data.

EXAMPLE

<?php
class Database {
    private $server = "localhost";
    private $username = "root";
    private $password = "";
    private $db_name = "pdo_db";
    public $connection;

    // The constructor establishes a connection when the object is created
    public function __construct() {
        try {
            // Added charset=utf8mb4 for character support
            $dsn = "mysql:host=" . $this->server . ";dbname=" . $this->db_name . ";charset=utf8mb4";
            $this->connection = new PDO($dsn, $this->username, $this->password);
            $this->connection->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
        } catch(PDOException $e) {
            die("Connection failed: " . $e->getMessage());
        }
    }

    // Method in the library that starts a transaction
    public function startTransaction() {
        return $this->connection->beginTransaction();
    }
}

// USAGE:
$db = new Database();

// We start the transaction via our class
if ($db->startTransaction()) {
    echo "Transaction has started! (Autocommit disabled)";
}
?>

RESULT

The result will be displayed here...

By including this method in the Database class, we ensure better code organization. When we call this method in our main script, we open the way for the safe execution of multiple operations that must either all succeed or all be rolled back.

The beginTransaction() method is the first step toward data integrity (ACID).

We expose this method in the library so it can be called directly via our object.

Using transactions inside the class prevents partial database writes in case of a server crash.