List multiple dependency errors when deploying or restoring

[Zweben]

Currently, if you try to restore or deploy a section in which there are multiple dependency errors, Umbraco will only tell you about the first one it encounters. This means that the user must fix an error, try again, and repeat to fix all errors, which can be very time consuming.

It would be much better if Umbraco kept searching for dependency errors after the first one is encountered, and told the user about all of them at once.

[azure-devops-sync]

AB#664

[craigs100]

I've come across this issue several times and agree it's a PITA. I think to help kill the reason for the issue, could we implement a dependency tracker to help the content editors. Something like the Nexu package in the core, where they're warned about the delete they're trying to make?

[dawoe]

I would love to see this fixed as well. Is huge PITA. Would be a lot better that I would see a full report instead of one by one

[nul800sebastiaan]

As someone else has just reported this issue, and it looks like we forgot to comment on this:

We have looked into this as you're not the only one asking for this feature. Unfortunately this is quite an enormous task and it we don't currently have a timeline for when we can implement this.

I'll put this one on the ideas list for now which means it's on our list of things we want to do in the future but currently have no estimate on when we can pick it up.

[thomasknielsen]

I would like to challenge the decision to not plan further fixes on this issue.It seems like it is not based on using the Umbraco Cloud product on multiple clients otherwise it would be very visible how important it is for the Cloud product.

Saying that it is not looked into because it is an enormous task is comparable to designing a car without an engine because that is an enormous task - yes it is - but it is also necessary to have a working car.

The issue with getting content synced "downstream" from Live > Dev > Local is touted as one of the main features to use Umbraco Cloud. But - at least in all the clients I have been in contact with - more than 50% of the time we try to restore content it fails. What further makes the issue worse is that the error messages are in "cryptical" .net error format. Even though there is an explanation that it is a dependency error and the entities are shown in the format of "Entity umb://document/548e2de29b5d4f98be748c5818e70116 ("Page name" - nodeId 2300) depends on entity umb://media/1e7affa8436a4fcebd77b7533308c5f7 which cannot be deployed, because it does not exist." it really does not give any meaningful insight to handle the error.

Most of the time I need to talk to support that usually is nice to help to find the missing node or image - but often they can't find it as well.
The error is both if anything is in the trash or deleted.

Even though it is restored to a "Development" environment - not everybody depending on the functionality are developers. Often we are using it to test a package before installing in the Live environment or extending doctypes in the backoffice.
If that should work it should be possible to get the latest content before starting extending the solution.

In my experience, the error is mainly coursed by media or nodes that are either trashed (95% of the time) or deleted.

Anyone working with live real-world clients will see that if they open anyone Umbraco installation - the trash in both the Content and Media tree will be full. Also - you will see that no editors are concerned about removing deleted media or relations from any other pages - in the end, the image is not shown on the website. So issue solved :)

Especially before the Media References, functionality was added it was difficult to know where an image was used - but that is still an issue on related content.
Lastly, when the trash is emptied it is not even possible to go through and disconnect the references.

It has been improved with the Partial restore as it is possible to pick some nodes for sync - but if any of the nodes in the path have an issue you are in troubles - and it kind of ruins the whole "just get all content from Live, develop, test and deploy" scenario.

So - this is just a small request to take this issue seriously and prioritize it in development. This issue is the Cloud edition of having a buggy RTF editor - it does not matter that 95% of the product is very polished when one of the main use cases is not stable.

P.S. With no knowledge about how this would affect the rest of the system - a suggestion for a "quickfix" would be to delete all dependencies on items deleted from the trashcans. As it is not possible to restore them anymore I can't see it should give any issues removing the references. In that way, we have a solution if the issue arises - just empty the trash can :)

[thomasknielsen]

Just a note - I was asked by support to vote on this case to get issues solved. Even though I can see that this is more in the category of getting an overview to know what the dependencies are - my request is more in the line of making sure the errors do not happen all the time. Sorry if any confusion.

[nul800sebastiaan]

Thank you for your comments! We understand your frustrations, and thank you for explaining the cause of (some of your issues).

This is an open issue on our ideas list that we currently can't fit in our roadmap. As you will understand, we have to set priorities and this hasn't made it to the top of the priorities list yet. Once we have more time to work on this, we will add it to our roadmap.

[thomasknielsen]

Alright - thanks for the feedback.

[thomasknielsen]

Just some more information on the issue.

It seems that most of the errors we get - is not even from deleted/trashed content. It is from pages that is working as they should be and with images in the RTF editor.

The root of the errors are that the "data-udi=" property on images is filled with wrong information - eg. IDs that is not in the platform I would guess.When deleting the "data-udi=" property and saving it is updated with a new one and works in the sync.

Please advise on the next steps for this. Should we create a bug for the "data-udi=" issue or do you have a workaround to get all of them updated to the right IDs?

[dawoe]

@thomasknielsen @nul800sebastiaan

To work around this you can update your deploy config. Apperently there is a undocumented setting to ingore broken dependencies

See umbraco/Umbraco.Cloud.Issues#63 (comment)

Dave

[nul800sebastiaan]

@thomasknielsen make sure to talk to support and show them how to reproduce. The data-udi values should cause the referenced items to be included as a dependency.

[nul800sebastiaan]

Note: my last comment should have included: if the data-udi items that are referenced are not trashed or deleted then they should be included as a dependency, otherwise you might have more luck with the workaround Dave provided for now.

[thomasknielsen]

@thomasknielsen @nul800sebastiaan

To work around this you can update your deploy config. Apperently there is a undocumented setting to ingore broken dependencies

See #63 (comment)

Dave

Thanks a lot @dawoe - I will try that workaround :)