Recently, we have upgraded a Sitecore instance successfully from Sitecore 8.1 Update 3 to Sitecore 8.2 Update 4. We have switched to use “new” Sitecore Publish – Sitecore Publishing Service 2.0 Update 1 as well. Everything looks good. However, there is a problem about clearing down items in the targets. It does NOT work as expected sometimes. We’ve managed to investigate it and have suspected that Sitecore Publishing Service may be the root cause:

• deleting an item inside Sitecore
• publishing parent item of item above with publishing options Publish subitems and Publish related items
• item publish completed – Item versions affected: 0
• switching to target databases and seeing that item is still existent

Therefore, we wanted to perform some test cases on a fresh Sitecore instance:

1. install Sitecore 8.2 Update 4
2. install Sitecore Publishing Service 2.0 Update 1
3. add a new template /sitecore/templates/User Defined/Test Item
   • Field section: Content
     • Field: Title (Single-line Text)
4. create a Sitecore structure like this:
   • 
5. publish /sitecore/templates/User Defined/Test Item with publishing options Publish subitems and Publish related items
6. publish sitecore/content/Home with publishing options Publish subitems and Publish related items

   • This slideshow requires JavaScript.
7. delete /sitecore/content/Home/Folder 1/Test Item 1
8. delete /sitecore/content/Home/Folder 2/Test Item 2
9. publish /sitecore/content/Home/Folder 1 with publishing options Publish subitems and Publish related items
   • Item versions affected: 1
   • 
10. publish /sitecore/content/Home/Folder 2 with publishing options Publish subitems and Publish related items
    • Item versions affected: 0
    • 

Expected Result

• at step 9, /sitecore/content/Home/Folder 1/Test Item 1 was removed from the target
• at step 10, /sitecore/content/Home/Folder 1/Test Item 2 was removed from the target

Actual Result

• at step 9, /sitecore/content/Home/Folder 1/Test Item 1 was removed from the target
• at step 10, /sitecore/content/Home/Folder 1/Test Item 2 was NOT removed from the target

The same actual result for:

• Sitecore 8.2 Update 3 and Sitecore Publishing Service 2.0 Update 1
• Sitecore 8.2 Update 2 and Sitecore Publishing Service 2.0 Update 1

What should we do?

Per our search on Sitecore Slack (publishingservice channel), it looks like a known-issue of Sitecore Publishing Service 2.0 Update 1. We already posted it in Sitecore Support Portal (Ticket Id: 490914) as well and have been waiting for the hotfix if any. Probably, we have to wait for the next release of Sitecore Publishing Service to overcome that issue.

Update (20-Sep-2017): for whom may concern, we have just got the latest feedback from Sitecore Support team

Update (10-Oct-2017): for whom may concern, Sitecore Publishing Service 2.1 Initial Release fixed the issue

In the meantime, we can try to resolve it with the ways below:

1. doing Site publish

   • This slideshow requires JavaScript.
2. doing Publish all items with Repair mode option (aka Republish in “old” Sitecore Publish) via Publishing Dashboard

   • This slideshow requires JavaScript.
3. switching to the target database then deleting that item manually
   • 

My Suggestion

Personally, I’d like to suggest that before deleting any items inside Sitecore, we should make them unpublishable then publish them (they will be removed from the target(s) automatically). With this approach, we have a chance to educate Editors how to avoid the problem above. Hopefully, it’s useful for someone is facing it.

• 

 

 

Happy Sitecore Workaround!