Add support for Either besides Try in TransactionAspectSupport in spring-tx

[emedina]

Description

Spring Framework already supports Vavr's Try type for transaction rollback decisions in TransactionAspectSupport. This proposal requests adding equivalent support for Vavr's Either type, which is widely used for railway-oriented programming and functional error handling.

Motivation

Either<L, R> is a common pattern for representing success (Right) or failure (Left) without throwing exceptions. It's the preferred approach for:

• Railway-oriented programming
• Explicit error handling in functional pipelines
• Domain-driven design where errors are domain concepts, not exceptions

Currently, a method like this will commit even when returning a failure:

@Transactional
public Either<PaymentError, Receipt> processPayment(PaymentRequest request) {
    return validateRequest(request)
        .flatMap(this::checkFunds)
        .flatMap(this::executeTransfer);
    // Returns Either.Left(InsufficientFunds) → transaction COMMITS (unexpected!)
}

Users expect Either.Left to trigger a rollback, similar to how Try.Failure does.

Proposed Change

Add Either support in TransactionAspectSupport.VavrDelegate, mirroring the existing Try implementation:

In invokeWithinTransaction() (~line 380):

// Existing Try support
else if (vavrPresent && VavrDelegate.isVavrTry(retVal)) {
    retVal = VavrDelegate.evaluateTryFailure(retVal, txAttr, status);
}
// Proposed Either support
else if (vavrPresent && VavrDelegate.isVavrEither(retVal)) {
    retVal = VavrDelegate.evaluateEitherLeft(retVal, txAttr, status);
}

In VavrDelegate inner class:

public static boolean isVavrEither(@Nullable Object retVal) {
    return (retVal instanceof Either<?, ?> either && either.isLeft());
}

public static Object evaluateEitherLeft(Object retVal,
        @Nullable TransactionAttribute txAttr, TransactionStatus status) {
    return ((Either<?, ?>) retVal).peekLeft(left -> {
        if (left instanceof Throwable throwable) {
            if (txAttr != null && txAttr.rollbackOn(throwable)) {
                status.setRollbackOnly();
            }
        } else {
            // Non-Throwable Left: rollback by default
            status.setRollbackOnly();
        }
    });
}

Behavior

Return Value	Transaction Outcome
Either.Right(value)	Commit
Either.Left(throwable)	Rollback if txAttr.rollbackOn(throwable) matches
Either.Left(nonThrowable)	Rollback (default)

Scope

This proposal (Phase 1):

• Basic Either.Left → rollback support
• Consistent with existing Try.Failure behavior
• Minimal change (~30-50 lines)

Future enhancement (Phase 2):

• Custom rollback rules for non-Throwable types (rollbackForWithEither attribute)
• Fine-grained control over which Left values trigger rollback

Impact

• No breaking changes - additive only
• No new dependencies - Vavr is already optional
• Consistent - matches existing Try support pattern
• Low risk - isolated to VavrDelegate

Alternatives Considered

1. Do nothing - Users must wrap Either in Try or throw exceptions (breaks functional style)
2. Custom TransactionInterceptor - Requires significant boilerplate for each project
3. AOP around advice - Happens after commit, too late for rollback

References

• Existing Try support: TransactionAspectSupport.VavrDelegate.evaluateTryFailure()
• Vavr Either documentation: https://docs.vavr.io/#_either
• Railway-oriented programming: https://fsharpforfunandprofit.com/rop/