EfCore.InMemory.Transactions is added

[ShadyNagy]

This PR adds https://github.com/ShadyNagy/EfCore.InMemory.Transactions to the EF Core extensions list.

What it does

Provides seamless transaction support for EF Core's InMemory provider by offering safe extension methods (BeginTransactionSafeAsync) and a NoOpDbContextTransaction class. This eliminates the common "transactions with isolation level are not supported" error when running integration tests with InMemory database.

Why it's useful

Developers using transactions with isolation levels in production code face exceptions when testing with InMemory provider. This package allows the same code to work in both production and test environments without conditional logic scattered throughout the codebase.

The problem

// Throws: "Transactions with isolation level Serializable are not supported"
await context.Database.BeginTransactionAsync(IsolationLevel.Serializable);

The solution

// Works with both real DB and InMemory
await context.Database.BeginTransactionSafeAsync(IsolationLevel.Serializable);

Package info

• NuGet: https://www.nuget.org/packages/EfCore.InMemory.Transactions
• GitHub: https://github.com/ShadyNagy/EfCore.InMemory.Transactions
• Supported: EF Core 8-10

Hi @ErikEJ @AndriySvyryd
I appreciate your support and review.
Thanks!

[ErikEJ]

LGTM

[roji]

I honestly was not aware we were throwing for transactions with a non-default isolation level. I don't think we should - regardless of the isolation level, when using the InMemory provider the transaction is simply ignored, so I think it makes just as much sense to do that when an isolation level is specified or not.

Or am I missing/misunderstanding something?

[ShadyNagy]

Hi @roji, thanks for the feedback!
Just to clarify, according to the official EF Core documentation:

"Note that by default, if a transaction is started, the in-memory provider will throw an exception since transactions aren't supported."

So transactions are not "simply ignored" by default - they throw. You need to explicitly configure:

.ConfigureWarnings(b => b.Ignore(InMemoryEventId.TransactionIgnoredWarning))

to make BeginTransaction() work silently.

However, even WITH that configuration, calling BeginTransaction(IsolationLevel.Serializable) throws a different exception: "Transactions with isolation level Serializable are not supported".

So there are actually two separate issues:

1. BeginTransaction() → throws TransactionIgnoredWarning (can be suppressed via ConfigureWarnings)
2. BeginTransaction(IsolationLevel.X) → throws a different exception that cannot be suppressed

My package addresses both cases with a unified approach, allowing the same transaction code to work in production and tests without modifications.

[ShadyNagy]

@roji, based on your feedback I've submitted a PR to fix this in EF Core itself:
dotnet/efcore#37579
This adds the IsolationLevel overloads to InMemoryTransactionManager that delegate to the existing parameterless methods.

In the meantime, my package (EfCore.InMemory.Transactions) can help developers who need this fix today or are using older EF Core versions (8, 9, 10) that won't receive this update.