Archiving processor does not archive

Question

I've set up a timed processor that takes items of a particular type and archives them if they haven't been updated in two years. I have it logging the correct item that it finds, but the article does not archive, and I get an null reference exception in the logs that I can't figure out.

Here is the archiver code:

using Sitecore.Configuration;
using Sitecore.Data.Items;
using Sitecore.Data;
using Sitecore.Data.Fields;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using Sitecore.Data.Archiving;
using Sitecore.Tasks;

 namespace Org.Utility.Tasks
 {
     public class ArticleArchiver
     {

    private static log4net.ILog logger
    {
        get
        {
            return Sitecore.Diagnostics.LoggerFactory.GetLogger("ArchiveLog");
        }
    }

    private readonly Database _sourceDatabase = Factory.GetDatabase("master");

    public void Execute()
    {
        //var itemContainer = _sourceDatabase.GetItem("/sitecore/content/AutoArchive/News");
        //var destinationContainer = _sourceDatabase.GetItem("/sitecore/content/AutoArchive/News Archive");
        var query = "/sitecore/content/Orgs//*[@@TemplateID='{61265D95-C82E-4AB8-AF25-55671AFEA48F}']";
        Database master = Factory.GetDatabase("master");
        Item[] articles = master.SelectItems(query);
        logger.Info(articles.Length);
        logger.Info("About to run ArchiveItems");
        ArchiveItems(articles);
    }

    private void ArchiveItems(Item[] list)
    {
        logger.Info("Running ArchiveItems");

        using (new Sitecore.SecurityModel.SecurityDisabler())
        {
            //logger.Info("got here");
            for (int i = 0; i < list.Length; i++)
            {
                Item item = list[i];
                //logger.Info(item.ID.ToString());
                if (item != null) { 
                    DateField updateDate = (DateField)(item.Fields["__Updated"]);
                    //logger.Info(item.Fields["__Updated"]);

                    //logger.Info(item.ID.ToString() + " - " + updateDate.ToString());
                    if (updateDate.DateTime.AddYears(2) < System.DateTime.Now.ToUniversalTime())
                    {

                        logger.Info("Found an item to archive: " + item.ID.ToString());
                        Sitecore.Context.Database.Archives["archive"].ArchiveItem(item);
                    }
                }
            }
            //logger.Info("after loop");
            //logger.Info(test);
        }
    }
}
}

I get the following in the Archive log:

ManagedPoolThread #4 22:41:26 INFO  32
ManagedPoolThread #4 22:41:26 INFO  About to run ArchiveItems
ManagedPoolThread #4 22:41:26 INFO  Running ArchiveItems
ManagedPoolThread #4 22:41:26 INFO  Found an item to archive: {DC4B36AA-EE47-4ACD-8D75-B4DF5A33E95C}

Yet in the main sitecore log I get:

ManagedPoolThread #3 10:07:54 INFO  Job started: 
Org.Utility.Tasks.ArticleArchiver
ManagedPoolThread #3 10:07:54 ERROR Exception
Exception: System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException
Message: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
Source: mscorlib
at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethod(Object target, Object[] arguments, 
Signature sig, Boolean constructor)
at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.UnsafeInvokeInternal(Object obj, 
Object[] parameters, Object[] arguments)
at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.Invoke(Object obj, BindingFlags 
invokeAttr, Binder binder, Object[] parameters, CultureInfo culture)
at Sitecore.Reflection.ReflectionUtil.InvokeMethod(MethodInfo method, 
Object[] parameters, Object obj)
at Sitecore.Jobs.JobRunner.RunMethod(JobArgs args)
at (Object , Object[] )
at Sitecore.Pipelines.CorePipeline.Run(PipelineArgs args)
at Sitecore.Pipelines.DefaultCorePipelineManager.Run(String pipelineName, 
PipelineArgs args, String pipelineDomain)
at Sitecore.Jobs.Job.ThreadEntry(Object state)

Nested Exception

Exception: System.NullReferenceException
Message: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
Source: Org
at Org.Utility.Tasks.ArticleArchiver.ArchiveItems(Item[] list) in C:\Sitecore\BitBucketRepository\Org\Utility\Tasks\ArticleArchiver.cs:line 48

Line 48 is:

DateField updateDate = (DateField)(item.Fields["__Updated"]);

Answer 1

It seems you are trying to create a scheduled task here but you cannot use Sitecore.Context in a scheduled task. Sitecore.Context is tied with HttpRequest, and there is no request in a scheduled task. You need to use the following way to get the database based on the database you are using-

var masterDb = Sitecore.Data.Database.GetDatabase("master");
var webDb = Sitecore.Data.Database.GetDatabase("web");

For more about Sitecore.Context see - https://community.sitecore.net/technical_blogs/b/sitecorejohn_blog/posts/the-sitecore-context

Answer 2

The issue is that you do not have a Sitecore.Context.Database available in a scheduled task. As a result, when you call Sitecore.Context.Database.Archives, you get an exception.

Update your code to the below instead and it should work as expected:

item.Database.Archives["archive"].ArchiveItem(item);