Soft deleting

[ozziest]

What is a soft delete?

A soft delete marks a record as no longer active or valid without actually deleting it from the database. Soft deletes can improve performance, and can allow “deleted” data to be recovered. [*]

Motivations

Developers should be able to add soft-delete features to the models.

Implementation

To add a soft-delete feature to a model, developers must add the following code to the model file;

class User extends Model {
  get deletedAtColumn(): string {
    return "deleted_at";
  }
}

deletedAtColumn should return NULL from the base Model. If developers add a database field name, it means that we have a soft-deleting feature for this model. Developers must create a timestamps data field on the database via migrations.

Soft-Deleting Record

The DELETE handler must work as the soft-deleting if there is soft-deleting support. Otherwise, it must work like a normal delete.

On the other hand, developers should be able to add FORCE_DELETE handler to models like the following example to support the force delete feature;

const { INSERT, PAGINATE, DELETE, FORCE_DELETE } = HandlerTypes;

class User extends Model {
  get handlers(): HandlerTypes[] {
    return [INSERT, PAGINATE, DELETE, FORCE_DELETE];
  }
}

Queries

Clients should not be able to see the soft-deleted records in queries (PAGINATE, SHOW). Also, clients should not be able to manipulate the soft-deleted records (UPDATE, PATCH).

In addition, the with keyword that fetches the related data should work with the soft-deleting feature perfectly.

Also, related data fetch must work perfectly with soft deleting. For example; the /api/users/1/posts request should check if the user 1 is soft-deleted or not. (#132)

Force Delete Handler

This would be a new handler for force deleting.

DELETE /api/users/:id/force

Listing deleted values

Clients should be able to fetch soft-deleted records from a database. To do that, they must use the following command;

/api/users?trashed=true

This should be configurable. By default, it should be false.

Hooks & Events

The following hooks and events should be supported for the force-delete handler;

• onBeforeForceDeleteQuery
• onAfterForceDeleteQuery
• onBeforeForceDelete
• onAfterForceDelete

Todo List

• Add the deletedAtColumn column to the base Model
• Change the DELETE handler works.
• Add the FORCE_DELETE handler.
• Change the basic queries.
• Change the with operator works.
• Add the trashed parameter to the queries.
• Check the soft-deleting feature for PUT, PATCH
• Add new hooks.
• Add the related query checks for the soft-deleting feature (/api/users/1/posts)

Acceptance Criteria

• Users should be able to soft delete (DELETE)
• Users should not be able to see the soft-deleted records (PAGINATE, SHOW, ALL)
• Users should not be able to update the soft-deleted records (PUT, PATCH)
• Users should be able to force-delete a record (FORCE_DELETE)
• Users should be able to see all records for non-soft-delete models (PAGINATE, SHOW, ALL)
• Users should not be able to see soft deleted records (/api/users/1/customers => Customer)
• Users should not be able to see soft deleted records (/api/users?with=customers => Customer)
• Users should not be able to handle child element if the parent record has been soft-deleted (/api/customers/1/phones => Customer)
• Users should not be able to handle records if related-parent elements (/api/phones?with=customer => Customer)
• Users should be able to use force-delete hooks
• Users should be able to see the trashed record by the query parameters (PAGINATE, SHOW, ALL)

Documentation Change

• Models -> Soft Deleting
• Handlers
• Queries -> trashed
• Queries -> related data
• Hooks
• DB Analyzer

[ozziest]

#38 , trashed flag should be limited.