PublishSmart method in sitecore PublishManager method is not working

Question

We are using sitecore ship package for doing smart publish. We are calling the smart publish post method from octopus. But Its not working. Not seeing any errors in the sitecore logs.

I analyzed the issue and noticed its calling the publish smart method. Sitecore publish smart handle is getting completed successfully. But still i don't see the items getting published. Is there any know issue with the PublishSmart method.

Since we are not passing the rootitem to this method, what item it will take its a root item?

We are using sitecore version 8.1 .

Answer 1

Smart publishing works in next way: It comes through all items in master database and compare "revision" field of item in web and master databases. If revision is different then item should be published. Otherwise publish of item should not happen.

I suggest you to compare revision field(turn on checkbox "Standard Fields", Statistics section, Revision field) on items that you think should be published. If revision is the same then there is something wrong with creation of package, you have same revisions. You need to figure out how package is created and why you get same revisions.

If revisions are different, but you still have the issue: try to change any item and make Smart publishing. May be smart publishing doesn't work on your environment at all. And Sitecore.Ship and package is not a problem.

Answer 2

I have the same issue and I'm using Sitecore 9.1.1. The log indicates the publishing completed without error but the item in web database is not updated. I use the following to code to publish. I have step through the code to see each parameter having the correct value.

PublishManager.PublishSmart(masterDb, targetDBs, languages);

The alternative I'm using is to use publish option (below) and set the RootItem to Sitecore root item. It works, but it is so slow.

var publishOptions = new PublishOptions(item.Database, targetDb, PublishMode.Smart, item.Language, DateTime.Now);
var publisher = new Publisher(publishOptions);
publisher.Options.RootItem = item;
publisher.Options.Deep = true;
publisher.PublishWithResult();