Hi everyone,

I’m working on a custom Optimizely CMS plugin/addon that programmatically creates a new page based on an existing source page and saves it using IContentRepository.Save().

We using the addon from our main project, the save fails with an exception:

Episerver.Core.EpiserverCancelException
Reason: \r\n

Unfortunately, the reason is completely empty, which makes it very hard to diagnose what’s actually blocking the save.

Here’s a simplified version of the code:

if (ContentReference.IsNullOrEmpty(targetPageRef))
{
    var newPage = _contentRepository
        .GetDefault<PageData>(
            targetParentRef,
            sourcePage.ContentTypeID,
            sourcePage.Language)
        .SetDefaultPageValues(sourcePage);

    newPage = newPage
        .UpdateRequiredFields(sourcePage)
        .SetDisabledProperties();

    _logger.LogInformation(
        "Created new page from '{ContentLink}'",
        sourcePage.ContentLink.ID);

    try
    {
        var saveAction = newPage.HasRequiredFields()
            ? GetSaveAction(sourcePage)
            : SaveAction.SkipValidation | SaveAction.CheckOut;

        targetPageRef = _contentRepository.Save(
            newPage,
            saveAction,
            AccessLevel.NoAccess);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        _logger.LogError(
            ex,
            "Error saving new page '{PageName}' under parent '{ParentId}'",
            newPage.Name,
            targetParentRef.ID);
        throw;
    }
}

My questions:

• What typically causes an EpiserverCancelException with an empty reason?

• Are there common CMS events, validators, or content handlers that silently cancel saves?

• Is there a way to surface which validation or event handler is causing the cancellation?

• Any known pitfalls when saving content from addons/plugins vs. site code?

Any pointers, debugging tips, or similar experiences would be hugely appreciated 🙏
Thanks in advance!

Thanks, Jakob