How to delete data extensions using SSJS in Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Managing Data Extensions in Salesforce Marketing Cloud can quickly become messy – especially when test data or outdated structures pile up. Unfortunately, there’s no built-in way to bulk-delete DEs through the UI – at least not from various folders. The good news? You can do it programmatically using SSJS and WSProxy.
In this guide, I’ll walk you through a safe and scalable approach to deleting Data Extensions with just a few lines of code, plus highlight some gotchas to avoid when working with relationships or retention policies.
<script runat="server">
Platform.Load("core", "1.1.1");
var deCustomerKeys = [
'customer_key_to_delete'
],
i = 0,
result,
api = new Script.Util.WSProxy();
try{
for (i=0;i<deCustomerKeys.length;i++){
result = api.deleteItem("DataExtension", {
"CustomerKey": deCustomerKeys[i]
});
if (result.Status == "Ok")
Write("Deleted - " + deCustomerKeys[i]);
else
Write(Stringify(result))
}
}catch(e){
Write(Stringify(e))
}
</script>Another approach to deleting Data Extensions with SSJS is to first save all the target CustomerKey values into a separate Data Extension, along with an isProcessed flag. This allows you to resume the deletion process seamlessly across multiple script executions, even if the 30-minute run-time limit is exceeded.
You can also parse the response to log or save anything you need.
{
"Status": "OK",
"RequestID": "ead10751-5bd2-4357-b007-60e018020d3a",
"Results": [
{
"Object": {
"CustomerKey": "test_delete",
"Name": null,
"Description": null,
"IsSendable": false,
"IsTestable": false,
"SendableDataExtensionField": null,
"SendableSubscriberField": null,
"Template": null,
"DataRetentionPeriodLength": 0,
"DataRetentionPeriodUnitOfMeasure": 0,
"RowBasedRetention": false,
"ResetRetentionPeriodOnImport": false,
"DeleteAtEndOfRetentionPeriod": false,
"RetainUntil": null,
"Fields": null,
"DataRetentionPeriod": "Days",
"CategoryID": 0,
"Status": null,
"Client": null,
"PartnerKey": null,
"PartnerProperties": null,
"CreatedDate": "0001-01-01T00:00:00.000",
"ModifiedDate": null,
"ID": 0,
"ObjectID": "54a0b136-4b61-f011-a5bb-5cba2c7b42b0",
"Owner": null,
"CorrelationID": null,
"ObjectState": null,
"IsPlatformObject": false
},
"StatusCode": "OK",
"StatusMessage": "Data Extension deleted.",
"OrdinalID": 0,
"ErrorCode": 0,
"RequestID": null,
"ConversationID": null,
"OverallStatusCode": null,
"RequestType": "Synchronous",
"ResultType": null,
"ResultDetailXML": null
}
]
}Sometimes, we don’t have the CustomerKey of a Data Extension readily available and would prefer to delete it by name. Unfortunat
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