Before we even start, I would reiterate that manipulating data directly should be avoided unless absolutely necessary, it should be used as the last resort, and should be proceeded with cautions – always back up first and test your queries on development database first before running it in production. And if the situation dictates that you have to run the query, better do it with the 4 eyes principle – having a colleague double check it for you. When it comes to production database, nothing is too careful.
Now back to the question, if you absolutely have to delete a content, you should do like this
exec editDeletePage @pageId = 123, @ForceDelete = 1It is basically what Content Clouds (i.e. CMS) does under the hood, without the cache validation on the application layer of course.
So the moral of the story – do everything with API if you can. If you absolutely have to, use the built-in stored procedures – they are tested vigorously and should have minimal issues/bugs, and should take care of everything, data-wise for you. Only write your own query if there is no SP that can be used.
Update: Initially I mentioned Tomas’ post in this, and that gave impression his way is incorrect. I should have written better. My apologies to Tomas
