Microsoft Content Management Server - Posting approved during SDAPI export is not exported correctly

Author

Posting approved during SDAPI export is not exported correctly

Erik Bailey

2005-03-23, 8:47 pm

Hi --

I have a strange problem that has surfaced quite a bit recently. It appears
that postings Approved while an SDAPI server export is running are not
correctly exported. This is CMS 2002 SP1 (not SP1a).

Specifically:
1) We are using a the standard .NET-wrapped SDAPI export code (with some
enhancements, such as the Resource dummy posting to force a full export of
all Resources to avoid broken links, but the core is the same).
2) I find that if I Approve a posting during the export process (which is
usually between 1 and 5 minutes, depending on the quantity it needs to
export), the following behavior is observed:
a) The Posting is exported, but it is the earlier revision (i.e., before
the approved change), and
b) The Posting is flagged as exported, so the next SDAPI export will NOT
pick it up

I have reproduced this reliably on my local box, and even reverted back to
an SDO from about 9 months ago (in case there was some weird data issue in
the CMS database) and observed the same behavior. I've verified the results
multiple times both visually and through the report generated at the end of
the export.

It seems to me that the posting should either be exported or not (and if
"not", that it would be exported during the next export). The problem isn't
so much that the earlier revision is exported (since that just pushes the
same version onto itself when it is imported) but the fact that it is
apparently flagged as "exported" meaning that the correct version is NOT
exported during the next SDAPI execution. The only way I can reliably
address this is to do a full export/import from Site Manager when a business
user notices this situation (I have to do full because I don't always know
what pages were affected).

Our CMS site (www.ihi.org) has been up for over 2 years now, but three
factors have probably combined to make this obvious for the first time
recently:
-- The quantity of content (especially resources) has steadily increased,
causing the elapsed time of the export to grow, increasing the window of
time that this problem can occur (our SDOs are at about 200MB now)
-- The number of authors and editors has increased, resulting in more
workflow approvals during the day
-- We have rolled out a "Manual Push" option to some of the senior content
managers, such that they can kick off a manual export at any time rather
than waiting for the nightly 3am export/import. This means that some exports
now occur during the business day, possibly overlapping with workflow
approvals.

I've searched the archives, the documentation, and the FAQ but haven't seen
anything on this. Any help would be appreciated, especially since I know
that compared to many of you, 200MB SDOs are quite small, and it seems
surprising to me that no one else has seen this.

(in the meantime, I'm going to at a minimum clamp down on the business users
doing manual pushes during the day).

Thanks! --Erik Bailey

Stefan [MSFT]

2005-03-24, 8:47 pm

Hi Erik,

sounds like a bug. You should open a support case for this.

Cheers,
Stefan.

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
Book: Building Websites Using MCMS: http://tinyurl.com/6zj44
----------------------

"Erik Bailey" <ebaileyREVERSEDOMAINS@org.ihi> wrote in message
news:u$hj8z#LFHA.2748@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
> Hi --
>
> I have a strange problem that has surfaced quite a bit recently. It
appears
> that postings Approved while an SDAPI server export is running are not
> correctly exported. This is CMS 2002 SP1 (not SP1a).
>
> Specifically:
> 1) We are using a the standard .NET-wrapped SDAPI export code (with some
> enhancements, such as the Resource dummy posting to force a full export of
> all Resources to avoid broken links, but the core is the same).
> 2) I find that if I Approve a posting during the export process (which is
> usually between 1 and 5 minutes, depending on the quantity it needs to
> export), the following behavior is observed:
> a) The Posting is exported, but it is the earlier revision (i.e.,
before
> the approved change), and
> b) The Posting is flagged as exported, so the next SDAPI export will
NOT
> pick it up
>
> I have reproduced this reliably on my local box, and even reverted back to
> an SDO from about 9 months ago (in case there was some weird data issue in
> the CMS database) and observed the same behavior. I've verified the
results
> multiple times both visually and through the report generated at the end
of
> the export.
>
> It seems to me that the posting should either be exported or not (and if
> "not", that it would be exported during the next export). The problem
isn't
> so much that the earlier revision is exported (since that just pushes the
> same version onto itself when it is imported) but the fact that it is
> apparently flagged as "exported" meaning that the correct version is NOT
> exported during the next SDAPI execution. The only way I can reliably
> address this is to do a full export/import from Site Manager when a
business
> user notices this situation (I have to do full because I don't always know
> what pages were affected).
>
> Our CMS site (www.ihi.org) has been up for over 2 years now, but three
> factors have probably combined to make this obvious for the first time
> recently:
> -- The quantity of content (especially resources) has steadily increased,
> causing the elapsed time of the export to grow, increasing the window of
> time that this problem can occur (our SDOs are at about 200MB now)
> -- The number of authors and editors has increased, resulting in more
> workflow approvals during the day
> -- We have rolled out a "Manual Push" option to some of the senior content
> managers, such that they can kick off a manual export at any time rather
> than waiting for the nightly 3am export/import. This means that some
exports
> now occur during the business day, possibly overlapping with workflow
> approvals.
>
> I've searched the archives, the documentation, and the FAQ but haven't
seen
> anything on this. Any help would be appreciated, especially since I know
> that compared to many of you, 200MB SDOs are quite small, and it seems
> surprising to me that no one else has seen this.
>
> (in the meantime, I'm going to at a minimum clamp down on the business
users
> doing manual pushes during the day).
>
> Thanks! --Erik Bailey
>
>