ICatalogManager3::DeleteDefinition Method [C++]

Article
11/12/2009

Use this method to delete a definition from the Product Catalog System.

Definition

[C++]

HRESULT ICatalogManager3::DeleteDefinition(BSTRstrDefinitionName,
  VARIANT_BOOLfForceDelete);

[Visual Basic]

Sub DeleteDefinition(strDefinitionName As String,
  Optional fForceDelete As Boolean)

Parameters

strDefinitionName[C++]
[in] A BSTR that contains the name of the definition to be deleted.
strDefinitionName[Visual Basic]
A String that contains the name of the definition to be deleted.
fForceDelete [C++]
[in, optional, defaultvalue (0)] A VARIANT_BOOL that specifies whether to force a deletion. A value of True indicates that the definition should be deleted even if it is currently being used in a catalog. A value of False indicates that the definition should only be deleted if it is not currently being used in a catalog.
fForceDelete[Visual Basic]
A Boolean that specifies whether to force a deletion. A value of True indicates that the definition should be deleted even if it is currently being used in a catalog. A value of False indicates that the definition should only be deleted if it is not currently being used in a catalog. The default value is False.

Return Values

[C++] This method returns an HRESULT indicating whether it completed successfully. See the Error Values section for more details.

[Visual Basic] None.

Error Values

[C++] This method returns S_OK (0x00000000) to indicate success and either standard or custom COM HRESULT error values to indicate failure. For more information about standard COM errors, see Standard COM Errors.

[Visual Basic] This method sets the Number property of the global Err object to S_OK (&H00000000) to indicate success and to either standard or custom COM error values to indicate failure. For more information about standard COM errors, see Standard COM Errors.

The following table shows the custom COM errors that this method can return.

Name	Value	Description
E_CAT_CATMGR_NOT_INITIALIZED	[C++] 0x889800B [Visual Basic] &H8898005	The CatalogManager object has not been initialized. The CatalogManager object should be initialized before calling this method.
E_CAT_INVALID_DEFINITION_LENGTH	[C++] 0x889800E [Visual Basic] &H889800A	The definition name that you specified is invalid. Definition names should be between 1 and 128 characters in length.
E_CAT_DEFINITION_DOESNT_EXIST	[C++] 0x8898000 [Visual Basic] &H889800B	The Definition you specified does not exist.
E_CAT_DEFINITION_USED_IN_CATALOG	[C++] 0x8898000 [Visual Basic] &H889800C	You cannot delete the Definition because it is still being used by one or more Catalogs. To delete the Definition, first remove all products and/or categories based on that Definition from all Catalogs.

[C++] Additional information may be available using the global Err object, which can be accessed using the API function GetErrorInfo. In particular, the GetDescription method of the IErrorInfo interface may return a text description of the error.

[Visual Basic] Additional information may be available using the global Err object. In particular, the Description property may contain a text description of the error.

Remarks

Use a value of True for the fForceDelete parameter with caution, as the category or product definition, and all categories and products that are based on them in all catalogs will also be deleted. This could result in data loss.

For more information about memory ownership issues related to COM property and method parameters, see Managing COM Parameter Memory.