How do I delete folders recursively using DQL? - documentum

Question

I work on an application using Documentum.
Let's say I have the following structure :
MyCabinetName
|->Folder 1
|->Folder 2
|-> Folder 3
I am trying to delete all the folders inside a cabinet.
I am running the following DQL query :
delete dm_folder objects where folder ('MyCabinetName', DESCEND);
But when I run the query, I get a DQL ERROR :
[DM_FOLDER_E_CANT_DESTROY]error : "Cannot destroy folder with path name /MyCabinetName/Folder1 as it is not empty
I thought my query would delete recursively all folders inside MyCabinetName, but it does not seem to be the case, for if I run :
delete dm_folder objects where folder ('MyCabinetName/Folder1/Folder2', DESCEND);
and then
delete dm_folder objects where folder ('MyCabinetName/Folder1', DESCEND);
delete dm_folder objects where folder ('MyCabinetName/Folder3', DESCEND);
then
delete dm_folder objects where folder ('MyCabinetName', DESCEND);
will work.
Problem is that in real life, I don't know what my folder tree looks like. I just know the name of the cabinet whose content I want to delete.
Is there any way to delete a cabinet and its content recursively without having to delete each folder one by one?

Answer 1

It is not possible to delete folder with deep folder structure by DQL.
But you can do it by Delete Operation, it means you can write a tool in Java, Groovy, ...
Here is an example how to do that:
IDfDeleteOperation operation = new DfClientX().getDeleteOperation();
operation.setVersionDeletionPolicy(IDfDeleteOperation.ALL_VERSIONS);
operation.setDeepFolders(true);
operation.add("/MyCabinetName");
if (!operation.execute()) {
IDfList errors = operation.getErrors();
// process errors
}
This line operation.setDeepFolders(true) instructs the operation to delete the folder with all sub-folders and other objects contained in the structure.