Common Pitfalls

Avoid these common mistakes when learning SPE.

Avoid these common mistakes when starting with SPE. Learning from others' errors will save you time and frustration.

Forgetting Item Editing Context

Items in Sitecore cannot be modified directly. You must use the editing context.

The Problem

• ❌ Wrong: $item["Title"] = "New Title" (changes won't save!)

• ✅ Correct:

  $item.Editing.BeginEdit()
  $item["Title"] = "New Title"
  $item.Editing.EndEdit()

Why It Matters

Without BeginEdit() and EndEdit(), changes are made to the in-memory object but never persisted to the database.

Best Practice Pattern

Always use try-catch to handle errors properly:

foreach($item in $items) {
    $item.Editing.BeginEdit()
    try {
        # Make your changes
        $item["Title"] = "New Title"
        $item["Text"] = "New content"

        # Commit changes
        $item.Editing.EndEdit()
    }
    catch {
        # Roll back on error
        $item.Editing.CancelEdit()
        Write-Error "Failed to update $($item.ItemPath): $_"
    }
}

Read more: Editing Items

Using Recursion on Large Trees

Using -Recurse carelessly can cause performance problems or even crash your session.

The Problem

# DANGEROUS on large content trees!
Get-ChildItem -Path "master:\content" -Recurse

Why It's Problematic

• On large content trees, this can take minutes or hours

• May consume excessive memory

• Can cause session timeouts

• Locks up the browser

Better Approaches

Option 1: Limit the Scope

# Recurse only within a specific subtree
Get-ChildItem -Path "master:\content\home\articles" -Recurse

Option 2: Use Content Search

# Much faster for large queries
$parameters = @{
    Index = "sitecore_master_index"
    Criteria = @{Filter = "DescendantOf"; Value = "{110D559F-DEA5-42EA-9C1C-8A5DF7E70EF9}"}
}

$items = Find-Item @parameters | Initialize-Item

Option 3: Limit Depth

$items = Get-ChildItem -Path "master:\content" -Depth 2

Read more: Find-Item | Best Practices

Ignoring Security

SPE is powerful, which makes security critical.

Common Security Mistakes

• ❌ NEVER run scripts from unknown sources

• ❌ NEVER deploy SPE without reviewing security settings

• ❌ NEVER install SPE on CD (Content Delivery) servers

• ✅ Always review and understand scripts before running

• ✅ Use role-based access control

• ✅ Test in development first

Review the Security Hardening Guide and complete the Security Checklist before deploying to any non-development environment.

Confusing PowerShell Comparison Operators

PowerShell uses different operators than most programming languages. See Language Basics for the complete comparison operator reference.

Examples

# WRONG - Using C# operators
if($count == 0) { }          # Syntax error!

# RIGHT - Using PowerShell operators
if($count -eq 0) { }         # Correct

# WRONG - Case-sensitive by default assumption
if($name -eq "MICHAEL") { }  # Will match "michael"!

# RIGHT - Explicit case-sensitive check
if($name -ceq "MICHAEL") { } # Only matches exact case

Learn more: Language Basics - Comparisons

Forgetting About Language Versions

Items in Sitecore can have multiple language versions, which affects querying and editing.

The Problem

# This gets the item in the DEFAULT language (usually en)
$item = Get-Item -Path "master:\content\home"
$item["Title"]  # Returns English title

Working with Languages

# Get specific language version
$item = Get-Item -Path "master:\content\home" -Language "de-DE"

# Get all language versions
$item = Get-Item -Path "master:\content\home"
$allVersions = Get-ItemField -Item $item -IncludeStandardFields -Name "*" -ReturnType Field

# Edit specific language
$item = Get-Item -Path "master:\content\home" -Language "de-DE"
$item.Editing.BeginEdit()
$item["Title"] = "Deutscher Titel"
$item.Editing.EndEdit()

Read more: Item Languages

Suppressing Output Incorrectly

Different methods of suppressing output have very different performance characteristics.

The Problem

# SLOW - Out-Null is a cmdlet, adds pipeline overhead
$builder.Append("Text") | Out-Null

# FAST - Redirect to $null
$builder.Append("Text") > $null

Performance Comparison

# Slow (don't use for simple suppression)
$list.Add($item) | Out-Null

# Fast (use this instead)
$list.Add($item) > $null

Next Steps

Now that you know what to avoid:

1. Review your scripts: Look for these pitfalls in existing code

2. Practice safely: Test in development before production

3. Learn best practices: Read Best Practices

4. Secure your installation: Complete the Security Checklist

Everyone makes mistakes when learning. The key is learning from them and building better habits!