Soft deletion
Soft deletion is a technique that marks or hides data as deleted while retaining its physical representation for recovery or later permanent removal.
API Design Patterns
Soft deletion is a deletion technique that marks a resource as deleted while retaining it until later physical removal or completion of a deletion process.
- How it is used
- Protects API users from accidental permanent deletion while preserving explicit paths for restoration and final removal.
- How deep it goes
- Defines storage markers, modifies GET, LIST, and DELETE, adds undelete and expunge, and addresses integrity, repetition, expiration, and versioning.
- Examples
- Uses ChatRoom endpoints, includeDeleted listing, undelete, expunge, deleted, and expireTime to demonstrate the resource lifecycle.
- What you can do after
- Operate a soft-deleting resource API with explicit listing, restoration, permanent-removal, expiration, and referential-integrity rules.
ASP.NET Core in Action, 3e
Soft delete is a deletion technique that marks a record as deleted so it is excluded from application exposure while remaining stored.
- How it is used
- Hides deleted records from application and API exposure while preserving their database rows.
- How deep it goes
- Explains the flag, delete method, and retrieval filters, while deferring broader scenario-specific limitations.
- Examples
- Uses a Recipe entity, an IsDeleted property, DeleteRecipe, and Where clauses as working examples.
- What you can do after
- Operate/configure an EF Core service that marks records deleted and prevents ordinary queries from returning them.
Read how ASP.NET Core in Action, 3e explains soft deletion →
Related concepts
- hard deletealternative to · A hard delete permanently removes data or a resource from its physical storage rather than merely marking it as deleted.
- HTTP methodimplemented by · An HTTP method is a standardized operation token in an HTTP request that specifies the intended action on a resource.
- list methodused by · A list method is an API operation that retrieves the resources belonging to a specified collection.
- booleanuses · A Boolean is a logical type or value representing truth or falsity, conventionally with two states: true and false.
- undeleteuses · Undelete is the operation of restoring a resource that was marked as deleted without being physically removed.
- tradeoffcontrasts with · A tradeoff is a situation in which improving one objective or property requires accepting a cost, limitation, or reduction in another.
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