Sitecore item:created vs item:added

Question

What is the difference between the events item:created vs item:added? When does each event get hit?

Answer 1

Looking at the code of the Sitecore.Data.Events.ItemAddedDelegate you may read that this delegate is deprecated and you should use ItemCreatedDelegate instead. From my tests:

1. Creating new item - both item:added and item:created are executed
2. Cloning item - both item:added and item:created are executed

3. Duplicating item - item:added is NOT executed, only item:created is executed

   namespace Sitecore.Data.Events
   {
       [Obsolete("Use the ItemCreatedDelegate event instead.")]
       public delegate void ItemAddedDelegate(object sender, ItemAddedEventArgs args);
   }
   

So in general, always use item:created

Answer 2

The item:added and item:created events seem similar, but Sitecore only fires item:added when a user creates an item through the UI, but it fires fires item:created when code creates items through APIs. Use item:added if you only need to trap manual item additions.

Reference: Taken from John West's blog post

http://www.sitecore.net/learn/blogs/technical-blogs/john-west-sitecore-blog/posts/2011/05/all-about-events-in-the-sitecore-aspnet-cms