V8: Can't Save and Publish Content during startup due to notifications issue

I’m attempting to create content, then save and publish using the content service but I’m running in to a null reference exception.

I’m not sure why this is happening, my hunch at the moment it is that I’m trying to create it from a composer and wondering if maybe something isn’t initialised for me at that point.

Anyway, here’s the code I’m using (or at least, the important parts):

using System.Linq;
using Umbraco.Core;
using Umbraco.Core.Composing;
using Umbraco.Core.Models;

namespace Test
{
    [RuntimeLevel(MinLevel = RuntimeLevel.Run)]
    public class ContentComposer : IUserComposer
    {
        public void Compose(Composition composition)
        {
            composition.Components().Append<ContentComponent>();
        }
    }

    public class ContentComponent : IComponent
    {
        public void Initialize()
        {
            IContent homepageNode = Current.Services.ContentService.GetRootContent().FirstOrDefault(x => x.ContentType.Alias == "homepage");

            if (homepageNode == null)
            {
                IContent homepage = Current.Services.ContentService.Create("Homepage", -1, "homepage");

                Current.Services.ContentService.SaveAndPublish(homepage);
            }
        }

        public void Terminate() { }
    }
}

When I attempt to do this, I get the following error:

Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

And the stack trace:

   at Umbraco.Web.Routing.RedirectTrackingComponent.get_Moving()
   at Umbraco.Web.Routing.RedirectTrackingComponent.get_LockedEvents()
   at Umbraco.Web.Routing.RedirectTrackingComponent.ContentService_Publishing(IContentService sender, PublishEventArgs`1 args)
   at Umbraco.Core.Events.QueuingEventDispatcherBase.DispatchCancelable[TSender,TArgs](TypedEventHandler`2 eventHandler, TSender sender, TArgs args, String eventName)
   at Umbraco.Core.Services.Implement.ContentService.StrategyCanPublish(IScope scope, IContent content, Boolean checkPath, IReadOnlyList`1 culturesPublishing, IReadOnlyCollection`1 culturesUnpublishing, EventMessages evtMsgs, ContentSavingEventArgs savingEventArgs)
   at Umbraco.Core.Services.Implement.ContentService.CommitDocumentChangesInternal(IScope scope, IContent content, ContentSavingEventArgs saveEventArgs, Int32 userId, Boolean raiseEvents, Boolean branchOne, Boolean branchRoot)
   at Umbraco.Core.Services.Implement.ContentService.SaveAndPublish(IContent content, String culture, Int32 userId, Boolean raiseEvents)
   at Test.ContentComponent.Initialize() in C:\Users\benpa\Desktop\DELETE ME\Test\Test\ContentComponent.cs:line 27
   at Umbraco.Core.Composing.ComponentCollection.Initialize()
   at Umbraco.Core.Runtime.CoreRuntime.Boot(IRegister register, DisposableTimer timer)

Reproduction

Specifics

Umbraco Version: 8.0.1

Steps to reproduce

• Set up fresh U8 install
• Login, create new doc type with alias of “homepage” (allowed at root)
• Set up component (code posted above)
• Build, run (after site restart to ensure component code runs)

Expected result

Homepage node created at root of content site.

Actual result

Null reference exception thrown

[zpqrtbnk]

What happens is this: the RedirectTrackingComponent uses the Current.UmbracoContext.HttpContext to store some state items that need to be carried over the different ContentService event handlers. In a IComponent when running Initialize, since there is no current request, there is no UmbracoContext, and it all ends in a NullReferenceException.

Turns out there is a way to ensure there is a context. Can you try with the following code?

public class ContentComponent : IComponent
{
    private readonly IContentService _contentService;
    private readonly IUmbracoContextFactory _contextFactory;
    
    public ContentComponent(IContentService contentService, IUmbracoContextFactory contextFactory)
    {
        _contentService = contentService;
        _contextFactory = contextFactory;
    }
    
    public void Initialize()
    {
        IContent homepageNode = _contentService.GetRootContent().FirstOrDefault(x => x.ContentType.Alias == "homepage");

        if (homepageNode == null)
        {
            IContent homepage = _contentService.Create("Homepage", -1, "homepage");
            
            using (_contextFactory.EnsureUmbracoContext)
            {
                _contentService.SaveAndPublish(homepage);
            }
        }
    }

    public void Terminate() { }
}

Two things to note:

• This is one of the few places where we are still using HttpContext to hold some context… and we are slowly getting rid of them as they create an unwanted dependency to System.Web.
• We are working on making these “context” concepts generally easier to understand and use. It is not always exactly pretty at the moment.

[martindotcontrol]

I’m facing the same issue, I’m trying to import some data from a API using a BackgroundTaskRunner. The weird part is the save and publish does work at my end it just throws an error.

at LightInject.Web.PerWebRequestScopeManager.GetOrAddScope() at LightInject.Web.PerWebRequestScopeManager.get_CurrentScope() at LightInject.ServiceContainer.GetInstance(Type serviceType) at Umbraco.Core.Composing.LightInject.LightInjectContainer.GetInstance(Type type) at Umbraco.Core.FactoryExtensions.GetInstance[T](IFactory factory) at Umbraco.Web.Runtime.WebInitialComposer.<>c.<Compose>b__0_6(IFactory factory) at Umbraco.Core.Composing.LightInject.LightInjectContainer.<>c__DisplayClass20_01.<Register>b__0(IServiceFactory f) at LightInject.ServiceContainer.GetInstance(Type serviceType) at Umbraco.Core.Composing.LightInject.LightInjectContainer.GetInstance(Type type) at Umbraco.Core.FactoryExtensions.GetInstance[T](IFactory factory) at Umbraco.Deploy.Cloud.LiveEditing.EventSubscriber.GetHubAndHelper(IHubContext& hub, UmbracoHelper& helper) at Umbraco.Deploy.Cloud.LiveEditing.EventSubscriber.ContentService_Published(IContentService sender, PublishEventArgs1 e)`