Glossary · Automation fundamentals, platforms and components
Transaction
German: Transaktion
In data processing, a transaction is a sequence of operations that is treated as one logical unit: either all operations take effect, or none of them does. Database transactions typically guarantee the ACID properties (atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability); in industrial communication, the term also describes a request-response exchange.
- Automation components
In one sentence
A transaction is a unit of operations that takes effect completely or not at all, as in database ACID transactions or MES bookings.
Example
When a pallet is completed, the MES books the material consumption and the finished goods in one transaction, so stock never shows only half of the booking.
How it applies
- Engineering: Machine-to-MES interfaces must avoid lost or duplicated bookings when connections drop. Transactions, acknowledgments and Idempotency make Retry safe.
- Operation: Buffering with Store-and-forward keeps data when the higher-level system is unavailable and transfers it later as complete transactions.
- Documentation: Interface specifications should describe which operations are transactional, what the acknowledgment is, and how errors, timeouts and retries are handled. In GMP environments, transaction records often form part of the audit trail. Log failed transactions so that they can be analyzed and completed.
Transaction vs. message
A message is a single transfer of data. A transaction is a logical unit that may include several messages and guarantees an all-or-nothing outcome. In Modbus TCP, "transaction" simply means one request and its response.