ContentManager.Create does nothing - orchardcms

Question

I am trying to build a service in Orchard that allows me to create content through a custom form on a page. The service and the content type definitions look fine to me, but somehow, eventhough I don't get any errors or other signs in the Orchard log files, creating new content using the IContentManager does nothing for me.
Parts involved
The controller accepting the form values
[HttpPost]
public ActionResult Create(CreateSopViewModel viewModel)
{
if(!ModelState.IsValid)
{
var shape = _shape.CreateContent();
shape.Header = _shape.Parts_Title(Title: "New item");
// Add the original fields to the shape.
shape.Title = viewModel.Title;
shape.Description = viewModel.Description;
shape.InitialComments = viewModel.InitialComments;
return new ShapeResult(this, shape);
}
// Store the new procedure in the database
_service.CreateContentItem(
viewModel.Title,viewModel.Description,viewModel.InitialComments);
// Redirect the user back to the homepage.
return Redirect("~/");
}
The service that contains the CreateContentItem method:
public void CreateContentItem(string title, string description, string initialComments)
{
// Initialize a new content item based on the SOP type
var customPart = _services.ContentManager.New<MyCustomPart>("CustomContentType");
customPart.Description = description;
customPart.Identifier = BuildIdentifier(title);
customPart.ContentItem.As<TitlePart>().Title = title;
_services.ContentManager.Create(customPart.ContentItem);
}
The content part + record
public class MyCustomPart: ContentPart<MyCustomPartRecord>
{
[Required]
public string Identifier
{
get { return Record.Identifier; }
set { Record.Identifier = value; }
}
[Required]
public string Description
{
get { return Record.Description; }
set { Record.Description = value; }
}
}
public class MyCustomPartRecord: ContentPartRecord
{
public virtual string Identifier { get; set; }
public virtual string Description { get; set; }
}
The migration
SchemaBuilder.CreateTable(typeof(MyCustomPartRecord).Name, table => table
.ContentPartRecord()
.Column<string>("Description")
.Column<string>("Identifier"));
ContentDefinitionManager.AlterPartDefinition("StandardOperationalProcedurePart", builder => builder
.Attachable(true));
ContentDefinitionManager.AlterTypeDefinition("CustomContentType", builder => builder
.DisplayedAs("Custom Content Type")
.WithPart("TitlePart")
.WithPart("MyCustomPart")
.Creatable(true));
Question
Again, I don't get any errors, not in the log and not in Visual Studio. However, my new content item doesn't get created or at least, I can't see it in the admin section of the site under Content.
What is going on and how can I debug this behavior?

Answer 1

I had a similar problem, which was solved when I used the overloaded Create method taking a VersionOptions enum value:
content.Create(customPart.ContentItem, VersionOptions.Published);
This should work even if the content item is not creatable, as mine isn't.

Answer 2

I had a similar issue. In my case the item did appear eventually, but not right away.
The solution for me was to do:
_contentManager.Flush();

Answer 3

I was having this issue, in my case it was that I actually had an error in the database (trying to put 100+ characters into a field that would only hold 100!).
I found the error I was getting (null id in Orchard.Indexing.Models.IndexingTaskRecord entry (don't flush the Session after an exception occurs) ), actually masked the issue. I had to go hunt in the logs to find the real problem.
So anyway, my advice is if you see that contentmanager.create seems to be doing nothing, and any errors don't seem to help, check the logs carefully. They can be found in the logs sub-folder of the appdata folder in the main Orchard.Web project. Because as I've found in the last 48 hours, often the answer is there.