Best practice to delete (permanently) a Content Item using the Content Manager I receive in DI

[MarGraz]

Hi Everyone,

As I previously discussed here regarding best practices for updating/creating a Content Item using the service in DI for my API microservice, I now have a similar question about deletion.

I have noticed that the Content Manager doesn't permanently delete my Publisher Content Item. It only has a RemoveAsync method that unpublishes the Content Item but leaves it in the database. I'm interested in permanently deleting the Content Item because I don't use versioning, and I prefer to keep my database clean of unused content.

Here is how I have implemented the method in my handler class, but as mentioned, it doesn't delete the Content Item from the database:

public async Task<ApiResult> DeletePublisherAsync(string publisherContentItemId)
{
    _logger.LogInformation($"{nameof(PublisherHandler)}-{nameof(DeletePublisherAsync)} started with publisherContentItemId: {publisherContentItemId}.");

    PublisherApiModel result = null;
    ContentItem contentItem = await _contentManager.GetAsync(publisherContentItemId);

    if (contentItem != null)
    {
        await _contentManager.RemoveAsync(contentItem);  // Unfortunately, it returns void

        // Check if the Content Item doesn't exist anymore
        ContentItem deleteResult = await _contentManager.GetAsync(publisherContentItemId);

        if (deleteResult == null)
        {
            // Deleted successfully
            _logger.LogInformation($"{nameof(PublisherHandler)}-{nameof(DeletePublisherAsync)} Publisher with publisherContentItemId: {publisherContentItemId} was deleted succesfully.");
            return new ApiResult(HttpStatusCode.OK);
        }
        else
        {
            _logger.LogError($"{nameof(PublisherHandler)}-{nameof(DeletePublisherAsync)} An error occurred trying to delete a publisher with publisherContentItemId: {publisherContentItemId}.");
            return new ApiResult(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError, $"An error occurred trying to delete a publisher with publisherContentItemId: {publisherContentItemId}");
        }
    }
    else
    {
        _logger.LogInformation($"{nameof(PublisherHandler)}-{nameof(DeletePublisherAsync)} No publisher found with publisherContentItemId: {publisherContentItemId}.");
        return new ApiResult(HttpStatusCode.NotFound, string.Format("No publisher found with publisherContentItemId: {id}", publisherContentItemId));
    }
}

Here is the Publisher Content Type I created in the OC backoffice, and Versionable is turned off:

It seems that this topic was also discussed in the past, but I can't find a solution using the ContentManager.

1. Is the only way to do it using the YesSql Isession.Delete method? Doesn't an Orchard Core handler exist? 🤔
2. Is there a method in Orchard Core to permanently delete a Content Item?

Thank you

[Piedone]

This isn't supported: #6056. You have to implement it low-level like the other DefaultContentManager CRUD operations, but at that point, it'd be better to contribute it :).

Having soft-deleted content items/versions in the DB won't become a noticeable issue until you have millions, BTW (or if you need them hard deleted for compliance reasons).

[MarGraz]

@Piedone thank you for your reply.

Yes, I need it for compliance reasons, I can't leave any "zombie" Content Items in the database.

I tried to implement the ISession.Delete method, and I succeeded in deleting the element from the Document table, but not from the ContentItemIndex table. (*)

This is a significant limitation for my requirements, and I need to delete data permanently.

1. Is there a way to override this behavior? Can I do it by implementing a Query with ISession in my handler?
2. I can contribute to this feature, but I can't wait until the next release. I need to implement a quick workaround first. After that, are you suggesting that I implement it in the ContentManager?

Thank you

(*) UPDATE it works, the problem was that I stopped the debugging too early and the process is async.

[Piedone]

1. I don't know; deleting the content item document should also delete the corresponding index entries.
2. Yes.

[MarGraz]

1. @Piedone I checked again, and ISession does delete entries in all the tables. I was confused because it's an asynchronous process, and I stopped the debugging too early 🤣
2. That could be a nice implementation, instead of directly using ISession.

Because the deletion is an asynchronous process, and _contentManager.GetAsync sometimes still returns the deleted item, here is the updated code, with a try/catch (because Delete is void, it should throw an Exception in case of a failure):

public async Task<ApiResult> DeletePublisherAsync(string publisherContentItemId)
{
    _logger.LogInformation($"{nameof(PublisherHandler)}-{nameof(DeletePublisherAsync)} started with publisherContentItemId: {publisherContentItemId}.");

    PublisherApiModel result = null;
    ContentItem contentItem = await _contentManager.GetAsync(publisherContentItemId);

    if (contentItem != null)
    {
        try
        {
            _session.Delete(contentItem);
        }
        catch (Exception exc)
        {
            _logger.LogError($"{nameof(PublisherHandler)}-{nameof(DeletePublisherAsync)} An error occurred trying to delete a publisher with publisherContentItemId: {publisherContentItemId}.");
            return new ApiResult(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError, $"An error occurred trying to delete a publisher with publisherContentItemId: {publisherContentItemId}. Error message: {exc.Message}");
        }

        // Deleted succesfully
        _logger.LogInformation($"{nameof(PublisherHandler)}-{nameof(DeletePublisherAsync)} Publisher with publisherContentItemId: {publisherContentItemId} was deleted succesfully.");
        return new ApiResult(HttpStatusCode.OK);
    }
    else
    {
        _logger.LogInformation($"{nameof(PublisherHandler)}-{nameof(DeletePublisherAsync)} No publisher found with publisherContentItemId: {publisherContentItemId}.");
        return new ApiResult(HttpStatusCode.NotFound, string.Format("No publisher found with  publisherContentItemId: {id}", publisherContentItemId));
    }
}

Thank you

[Piedone]

Great then, and thanks for the update! Would you like to venture into submitting a PR? We can discuss the implementation approach before that under the issue.