NullReferenceException when deleting a sitecore items children

Question

i'm trying to import some legacy poll data into our sitecore solution. For part of the import, i'm trying to create new sitecore items to hold the data based off of a master page we already have set up for polls. this master has a couple of default items set up underneath of it, and I want to delete a couple of specific default items before I add the legacy poll data. however, when i attempt to delete one of the default items using item.DeleteChildren(), i get a NullReferenceException thrown by Sitecore.Tasks.ItemEventHandler.OnItemDeleted(Object sender, EventArgs args) in the sitecore kernel. if anyone has any idea what could be causing this, i'd appreciate it. we're on sitecore version 5.3.2.

here is the code i'm using to attempt to create/edit the item based off of a master. the creation all works perfectly, it's the DeleteChildren() call that doesn't work.

   Guid LegacyPollFolderGuid = new Guid("8AE89A44-9DCD-4AC2-B0F3-DD438188A575");
   Guid QuizOMaticMasterGuid = new Guid("74B95ABF-1898-4870-8B4F-50AF0078AE22");

   var master = Sitecore.Configuration.Factory.GetDatabase("master");
   var root = master.GetItem(new Sitecore.Data.ID(LegacyPollFolderGuid));
   var quizMasterTemplate = master.Masters[new Sitecore.Data.ID(QuizOMaticMasterGuid)];

   var quizPage = root.Add("Test Quiz", quizMasterTemplate);
   if (quizPage != null)
   {
      var quiz = quizPage.Children["Column One"].Children["QuizOMatic"];
      if (quiz != null)
      {
         var questionFolder = quiz.Children["Questions"];
         var questionTemplate = questionFolder.Children[0].Template;
         var resultsFolder = quiz.Children["Results"];
         var linksFolder = quiz.Children["Links"];

         using (new Sitecore.SecurityModel.SecurityDisabler())
         {
            questionFolder.DeleteChildren();
         }
      }

Do you need the question folder.? Have you tried deleting it directly. It will automatically remove the children. — marto
I haven't tried deleting the question folder, because I need it. I've tried enumerating the question folders children and calling item.Delete() on each child item directly, same result. — Mike Corcoran
Its sounds like a sitecore bug. I wonder if it is because you just created the item and delete is straight away. Just to prove it is not a timing issue can you out Thread.Sleep(2000) just before you call delete and see if it will still error — marto

Wouter van Vegchel Wouter van Vegchel · Accepted Answer · 2014-02-14T11:13:37

I've built a tool with the same functionality; removing all items under a specific folder. I got the same error, but I saw items being deleted. So I reran the tool multiple times and eventually all items were deleted.

NullReferenceException when deleting a sitecore items children

1 Answers