Unable to publish item through code

Question

I'm using Sitecore 8.2 and trying to publish an item to 'web' like this:

public static PublishResult PublishItem(string sourceItemPath, Language targetItemLanguage, 
string targetDatabaseName,  bool publishSubItems)
        {
          PublishResult publishResult = null;
          Item sourceItem = Databases.masterDb.GetItem(sourceItemPath, targetItemLanguage);

            if (sourceItem != null)
            {
                Database targetDatabase = GetDatabase(targetDatabaseName);

                if (targetDatabase != null)
                {
                    using (new SecurityDisabler())
                    {
                      Sitecore.Publishing.PublishOptions publishOptions =
                      new Sitecore.Publishing.PublishOptions(Databases.masterDb, 
targetDatabase, Sitecore.Publishing.PublishMode.SingleItem,    
sourceItem.Language, System.DateTime.Now);

                        if (publishOptions != null)
                        {
                            publishOptions.UserName = Sitecore.Context.User.Name; ;
                      Sitecore.Publishing.Publisher publisher = 
              new Sitecore.Publishing.Publisher(publishOptions);

                            if (publisher != null)
                            {
                                publisher.Options.RootItem = sourceItem;

                                publisher.Options.Deep = publishSubItems;

                       publishResult = publisher.PublishWithResult(); ///exception here

                                sourceItem.Publishing.ClearPublishingCache();
                            }
                        }
                    }  
                }
            }

            return publishResult;
        }

The error is:

One or more exceptions occurred while processing the subscribers to the 'publish:end' event.

When published manually, the item gets published.
Do we need to modify any config setting, when publishing items programmatically.

UPDATE: I changed the publishing statement to this & it worked:

Sitecore.Handle handle = PublishManager.PublishItem(sourceItem, new[] { targetDatabase }, 
new[] { targetItemLanguage }, publishSubItems, true);

But I would like to get the published statistics like items created/updated/skipped.

Answer 1

Your code works for me (not much help, I know :) ) but if there is something in the publish:end event listener that is throwing the error then you could try using an EventDisabler in your code as well as the SecurityDisabler you have;

using (new SecurityDisabler())
using (new EventDisabler())
{
    // your code
}

Not sure that will stop that event happening though. There is a method in the Publisher class called PerformPublishWithResult that doesn't instigate the publish events however it is protected so you'll need your own publisher class to use it.

public class MyPublisher : Sitecore.Publishing.Publisher
{
    public MyPublisher(PublishOptions options)
        : base(options)
    {

    }

    public MyPublisher(PublishOptions options, IEnumerable<Language> languages)
        : base(options, languages)
    {

    }

    public override PublishResult PublishWithResult()
    {
        object publishLock = GetPublishLock();
        lock (publishLock)
        {
            try
            {
                using (new SecurityDisabler())
                {
                    AssertState();
                    PublishResult result = PerformPublishWithResult();
                    UpdateLastPublish();
                    return result;
                }
            }
            catch (Exception ex)
            {
                NotifyFailure(ex);
                throw;
            }
        }
    }
}

Now use MyPublisher instead;

MyPublisher publisher = new MyPublisher(publishOptions);

if (publisher != null)
{
    publisher.Options.RootItem = sourceItem;
    publisher.Options.Deep = publishSubItems;
    publishResult = publisher.PublishWithResult();
    sourceItem.Publishing.ClearPublishingCache();
}

The PublishWithResult method on MyPublisher does what the built-in version does only without raising the publish events.