Mass delete publications in Tridion 2009

Question

Is there a way to mass delete publications rather than delete them from the Content Manager? I need to get rid of about 75 pubs which are now surplus.

Answer 1

Whilst it may be possible to manipulate the database directly, the only supported ways to delete publications is through the Content Manager or an API (although quickly looking at the documentation I think it's only possible through the older TOM API, not TOM.Net).

As Nuno suggests, for 75 publications, it will likely be far easier to do it through the Content Manager rather than write/test/debug a tool that uses the API to do the same job.

Remember that you can only delete publications as long as:

• No content in the Publication is published.
• The Publication does not have any Child Publications in a BluePrint.
• You are a system administrator.

Answer 2

Simplest way is using the Core Service API I would say, just call client.Delete("tcm:0-xyz-1"); creating your Core Service Client as described on tridion-practice for example.

However you will most likely get an Item is in use. error back which you probably best can resolve manually in the UI. Unpublishing the entire publication as a preparation before calling Delete is also possible using the client.UnPublish() method (see API documentation for details about the parameters required).