How to work around the lack of transactions in MongoDB?

Question

I know there are similar questions here but they are either telling me to switch back to regular RDBMS systems if I need transactions or use atomic operations or two-phase c

Answer 1

This is late but think this will help in future. I use Redis for make a queue to solve this problem.

• Requirement:
  Image below show 2 actions need execute concurrently but phase 2 and phase 3 of action 1 need finish before start phase 2 of action 2 or opposite (A phase can be a request REST api, a database request or execute javascript code...).

• How a queue help you
  Queue make sure that every block code between lock() and release() in many function will not run as the same time, make them isolate.

  function action1() {
    phase1();
    queue.lock("action_domain");
    phase2();
    phase3();
    queue.release("action_domain");
  }
  
  function action2() {
    phase1();
    queue.lock("action_domain");
    phase2();
    queue.release("action_domain");
  }
  

• How to build a queue
  I will only focus on how avoid race conditon part when building a queue on backend site. If you don't know the basic idea of queue, come here.
  The code below only show the concept, you need implement in correct way.

  function lock() {
    if(isRunning()) {
      addIsolateCodeToQueue(); //use callback, delegate, function pointer... depend on your language
    } else {
      setStateToRunning();
      pickOneAndExecute();
    }
  }
  
  function release() {
    setStateToRelease();
    pickOneAndExecute();
  }
  

But you need isRunning() setStateToRelease() setStateToRunning() isolate it's self or else you face race condition again. To do this I choose Redis for ACID purpose and scalable.
Redis document talk about it's transaction:

All the commands in a transaction are serialized and executed sequentially. It can never happen that a request issued by another client is served in the middle of the execution of a Redis transaction. This guarantees that the commands are executed as a single isolated operation.

P/s:
I use Redis because my service already use it, you can use any other way support isolation to do that.
The action_domain in my code is above for when you need only action 1 call by user A block action 2 of user A, don't block other user. The idea is put a unique key for lock of each user.