TransactionalEventListener(phase = BEFORE_COMMIT) not called if the event was fired by another transactional listener in the same BEFORE_COMMIT phase

[Nimelrian]

Description

An event published within the handling of a transactional event listener with its phase set to BEFORE_COMMIT will NOT be handled by another transactional event listener which is also assigned to the BEFORE_COMMIT phase.

Expected

If a BEFORE_COMMIT listener publishes an event listened to by another BEFORE_COMMIT listener, that event listener should get called in the already running before commit phase.

sequenceDiagram;
    participant Component
    participant EventPublisher
    participant Transaction

    participant A as Listener A
    participant B as Listener B
    Component-->>+Transaction: start
    Component-->>EventPublisher: publish event A;
    EventPublisher-->>Transaction: defer listener A execution to commit;
    Component-->>Transaction: commit
    Transaction-->>A: handle event
    A-->>EventPublisher: publish event B;
    EventPublisher-->>Transaction: defer listener B execution to commit;
    Transaction-->>B: handle event
    Transaction-->>-Component: committed

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Actual

If a BEFORE_COMMIT listener publishes an event listened to by another BEFORE_COMMIT listener, that event listener does not get called and the event is "lost".

sequenceDiagram;
    participant Component
    participant EventPublisher
    participant Transaction

    participant A as Listener A
    participant B as Listener B
    Component-->>+Transaction: start
    Component-->>EventPublisher: publish event A;
    EventPublisher-->>Transaction: defer listener A execution to commit;
    Component-->>Transaction: commit
    Transaction-->>A: handle event
    A-->>EventPublisher: publish event B;
    EventPublisher-->>Transaction: defer listener B execution to commit;
    Transaction-->>-Component: committed

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Affected versions

Tested with Spring Boot 3.5 and 3.4. Both show the same behavior.

Reproduction

Small Spring Boot test for reproduction.

Maven POM:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
         xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>3.5.0</version>
        <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
    </parent>
    <groupId>de.nimelrian</groupId>
    <artifactId>before-commit-reproduction</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>

    <properties>
        <java.version>21</java.version>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-jdbc</artifactId>
        </dependency>

        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
            <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.beans.factory.annotation.Autowired;
import org.springframework.boot.test.autoconfigure.jdbc.AutoConfigureJdbc;
import org.springframework.boot.test.context.SpringBootTest;
import org.springframework.context.ApplicationEventPublisher;
import org.springframework.context.annotation.Configuration;
import org.springframework.test.context.event.ApplicationEvents;
import org.springframework.test.context.event.RecordApplicationEvents;
import org.springframework.transaction.event.TransactionPhase;
import org.springframework.transaction.event.TransactionalEventListener;
import org.springframework.transaction.support.TransactionTemplate;

import static org.assertj.core.api.Assertions.assertThat;

@SpringBootTest
@AutoConfigureJdbc
@RecordApplicationEvents
class DemoApplicationTests {

    private static final Logger log = LoggerFactory.getLogger(DemoApplicationTests.class);

    @Test
    void while_committing_additionally_published_events_should_be_handled(
            @Autowired TransactionTemplate txTemplate,
            @Autowired ApplicationEventPublisher applicationEventPublisher,
            @Autowired ApplicationEvents applicationEvents
            ) {
        txTemplate.executeWithoutResult(tx -> {
            log.info("Publishing EventA");
            applicationEventPublisher.publishEvent(new EventA());
            log.info("Committing transaction");
        });

        assertThat(applicationEvents.stream(EventA.class)).as("EventA should have been published").hasSize(1);
        assertThat(applicationEvents.stream(EventB.class)).as("EventB should have been published by listener for EventA").hasSize(1);
        assertThat(applicationEvents.stream(EventC.class)).as("EventC should have been published by listener for EventB").hasSize(1); // This fails

    }

    @Configuration
    static class TestContextConfiguration {

        private final ApplicationEventPublisher applicationEventPublisher;

        TestContextConfiguration(ApplicationEventPublisher applicationEventPublisher) {
            this.applicationEventPublisher = applicationEventPublisher;
        }

        @TransactionalEventListener(phase = TransactionPhase.BEFORE_COMMIT)
        void handleEventA(EventA eventA) {
            log.info("handleEventA");
            applicationEventPublisher.publishEvent(new EventB());
        }

        @TransactionalEventListener(phase = TransactionPhase.BEFORE_COMMIT)
        void handleEventB(EventB eventB) {
            log.info("handleEventB");
            applicationEventPublisher.publishEvent(new EventC());
        }

    }

    record EventA() {
    }

    record EventB() {
    }

    record EventC() {
    }
}

Log output:

INFO [demo] [           main] com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource       : HikariPool-1 - Starting...
INFO [demo] [           main] com.zaxxer.hikari.pool.HikariPool        : HikariPool-1 - Added connection conn0: url=jdbc:h2:mem:9e2b7744-82f9-47aa-a3b3-5b866c6a8e06 user=SA
INFO [demo] [           main] com.zaxxer.hikari.HikariDataSource       : HikariPool-1 - Start completed.
INFO [demo] [           main] de.nimelrian.demo.DemoApplicationTests   : Publishing EventA
INFO [demo] [           main] de.nimelrian.demo.DemoApplicationTests   : Committing transaction
INFO [demo] [           main] de.nimelrian.demo.DemoApplicationTests   : handleEventA

java.lang.AssertionError: [EventC should have been published by listener for EventB] 
Expected size: 1 but was: 0 in:
[]

	at de.nimelrian.demo.DemoApplicationTests.while_committing_additionally_published_events_should_be_handled(DemoApplicationTests.java:40)
	at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:580)
	at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1596)
	at java.base/java.util.ArrayList.forEach(ArrayList.java:1596)

[Nimelrian]

Note: This probably occurs due to TransactionSynchronizationManager.getSynchronizations returning an UnmodifiableList of the listeners for events (in form of synchronizations with a beforeCommit handler) which have been published at the start of the beforeCommit triggers: https://github.com/spring-projects/spring-framework/blob/v6.2.8/spring-tx/src/main/java/org/springframework/transaction/support/TransactionSynchronizationUtils.java#L125-L129

public static void triggerBeforeCommit(boolean readOnly) {
	for (TransactionSynchronization synchronization : TransactionSynchronizationManager.getSynchronizations()) {
		synchronization.beforeCommit(readOnly);
	}
}

If events get published during the execution of listeners they get registered as new synchronizations, but the foreach loop obviously doesn't take these into account since the list with synchronizations is only created once at the start of the loop. Maybe this could instead make use of a queue from which synchronizations are popped and executed (with new synchronizations being emplaced at the back) until none are left...