Zim supports two types of transactions: implicit and explicit. An implicit transaction is associated with each individual Zim command that accesses the database in some manner (either read/only or read/write). When the command ends, all locks that were acquired are released and any database updates are committed to the database. If the command fails (e.g. a deadlock condition), then Zim automatically removes any partial updates and releases all locks.

Explicit transactions are provided in order to support database updates associated with multiple database access commands that must either be all committed or all removed as a single “logical unit of work” (or “logical unit of recovery”). An explicit transaction is initiated by the command “transaction” and ended either by the command “endtransaction” (that commits any database updates) or by the command “quittransaction” (that cancels any database updates). Both commands release all held locks. Should any database access command inside an explicit transaction fail (e.g. by a deadlock condition) then all partial updates to that point are removed and all held locks are released.

Zim supports this “transaction” functionality against an SQL server database.