Explicit soft deletion for ActiveRecord via deleted_at and default scope + callbacks.
Not overwriting destroy or delete.

Install

gem install soft_deletion

Or

rails plugin install git://github.com/grosser/soft_deletion.git

Usage

# mix into any model ...
class User < ActiveRecord::Base
  include SoftDeletion

  after_soft_delete :send_deletion_emails # Rails 2 + 3
  set_callback :soft_delete, :after, :prepare_emails # Rails 3

  has_many :products
end

# soft delete them including all dependencies that are marked as :destroy, :delete_all, :nullify
user = User.first
user.products.count == 10
user.soft_delete!
user.deleted? # true

# use special with_deleted scope to find them ...
user.reload # ActiveRecord::RecordNotFound
User.with_deleted do
  user.reload # there it is ...
  user.products.count == 0
end

# soft undelete them all
user.soft_undelete!
user.products.count == 10

TODO

• Rails 3 from with inspiration from https://github.com/JackDanger/permanent_records/blob/master/lib/permanent_records.rb
• maybe stuff from https://github.com/smoku/soft_delete

Author

Zendesk
michael@grosser.it
License: MIT