Deleting list items with ProcessBatchData using PowerShell

Question

I am trying to delete items in bulk and keep getting this error message:

<Results><Result ID="" Code="-2130575312">
<ErrorText>Invalid file name.

The file name you specified could not be used.  It may be the name of an existing file or directory, or you may not have permission to access the file.</ErrorText></Result>
<Result ID="" Code="-2147023673">
<ErrorText>The operation failed because an unexpected error occurred. (Result Code: 0x800704c7)</ErrorText></Result>
<Result ID="" Code="-2147023673">

here is my batch xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<Batch>
  <Method>
    <SetList>fe8ac4a1-c326-4a89-83ec-0793cdee943e</SetList>
    <SetVar Name="ID">1</SetVar>
    <SetVar Name="Cmd">Delete</SetVar>
  </Method>
  <Method>
    <SetList>fe8ac4a1-c326-4a89-83ec-0793cdee943e</SetList>
    <SetVar Name="ID">3</SetVar>
    <SetVar Name="Cmd">Delete</SetVar>
  </Method>
</Batch>

I used the code from here: https://gist.github.com/cakriwut/3b19fa7befedddb715f8

Answer 1

It works for me:

private void StartDeletion(SPWeb web, SPList spList)
{
    SPQuery query = new SPQuery();
    query.RowLimit = 1500;

    //Delete items                
    while (spList.ItemCount > 0)
    {
        SPListItemCollection collCities = spList.GetItems(query);
        string deletingBatch = BuildBatchDeleteCommand(spList, collCities);

        web.ProcessBatchData(deletingBatch);

        spList.Update();
    }
}

private string BuildBatchDeleteCommand(SPList list, SPListItemCollection coll)
{
    StringBuilder sbDelete = new StringBuilder();
    string batchFormat = "<?xml version=\"1.0\" encoding=\"UTF-8\"?>" +
                            "<ows:Batch OnError=\"Continue\">{0}</ows:Batch>";


    StringBuilder batchBuilder = new StringBuilder();
    string command = String.Format("<Method><SetList>{0}</SetList><SetVar Name=\"ID\">{{0}}</SetVar><SetVar Name=\"Cmd\">Delete</SetVar></Method>", list.ID);
    foreach (SPListItem item in coll)
    {
        batchBuilder.AppendFormat(command, item.ID.ToString());
    }
    string fullBatch = string.Format(batchFormat, batchBuilder.ToString());
    return fullBatch;
}

Answer 2

I had to add this to my xml:

<SetVar Name=`"owsfileref`">{Path}</SetVar></Method>

{Path} = $list.ParentWeb.Url+"/"+$item.Url