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https://github.com/ActsAsParanoid/acts_as_paranoid

ActiveRecord plugin allowing you to hide and restore records without actually deleting them.
https://github.com/ActsAsParanoid/acts_as_paranoid

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ActiveRecord plugin allowing you to hide and restore records without actually deleting them.

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# ActsAsParanoid



[![CI](https://github.com/ActsAsParanoid/acts_as_paranoid/actions/workflows/ruby.yml/badge.svg)](https://github.com/ActsAsParanoid/acts_as_paranoid/actions/workflows/ruby.yml)



A Rails plugin to add soft delete.



This gem can be used to hide records instead of deleting them, making them

recoverable later.



## Support



**This version targets Rails 6.1+ and Ruby 3.0+ only**



If you're working with Rails 6.0 and earlier, or with Ruby 2.7 or earlier,

please require an older version of the `acts_as_paranoid` gem.



### Known issues



* Using `acts_as_paranoid` and ActiveStorage on the same model

  [leads to a SystemStackError](https://github.com/ActsAsParanoid/acts_as_paranoid/issues/103).

* You cannot directly create a model in a deleted state, or update a model

  after it's been deleted.



## Usage



#### Install gem



```ruby

gem 'acts_as_paranoid'

```



```shell

bundle install

```



#### Create migration



```shell

bin/rails generate migration AddDeletedAtToParanoiac deleted_at:datetime:index

```



#### Enable ActsAsParanoid



```ruby

class Paranoiac < ActiveRecord::Base

  acts_as_paranoid

end

```



By default, ActsAsParanoid assumes a record's *deletion* is stored in a

`datetime` column called `deleted_at`.



### Options



If you are using a different column name and type to store a record's

*deletion*, you can specify them as follows:



- `column:      'deleted'`

- `column_type: 'boolean'`



While *column* can be anything (as long as it exists in your database), *type*

is restricted to:



- `boolean`

- `time` or

- `string`



Note that the `time` type corresponds to the database column type `datetime`

in your Rails migrations and schema.



If your column type is a `string`, you can also specify which value to use when

marking an object as deleted by passing `:deleted_value` (default is

"deleted"). Any records with a non-matching value in this column will be

treated normally, i.e., as not deleted.



If your column type is a `boolean`, it is possible to specify `allow_nulls`

option which is `true` by default. When set to `false`, entities that have

`false` value in this column will be considered not deleted, and those which

have `true` will be considered deleted. When `true` everything that has a

not-null value will be considered deleted.



### Filtering



If a record is deleted by ActsAsParanoid, it won't be retrieved when accessing

the database.



So, `Paranoiac.all` will **not** include the **deleted records**.



When you want to access them, you have 2 choices:



```ruby

Paranoiac.only_deleted # retrieves only the deleted records

Paranoiac.with_deleted # retrieves all records, deleted or not

```



When using the default `column_type` of `'time'`, the following extra scopes

are provided:



```ruby

time = Time.now



Paranoiac.deleted_after_time(time)

Paranoiac.deleted_before_time(time)



# Or roll it all up and get a nice window:

Paranoiac.deleted_inside_time_window(time, 2.minutes)

```



### Real deletion



In order to really delete a record, just use:



```ruby

paranoiac.destroy_fully!

Paranoiac.delete_all!(conditions)

```



**NOTE:** The `.destroy!` method is still usable, but equivalent to `.destroy`.

It just hides the object.



Alternatively you can permanently delete a record by calling `destroy` or

`delete_all` on the object **twice**.



If a record was already deleted (hidden by `ActsAsParanoid`) and you delete it

again, it will be removed from the database.



Take this example:



```ruby

p = Paranoiac.first



# does NOT delete the first record, just hides it

p.destroy



# deletes the first record from the database

Paranoiac.only_deleted.where(id: p.id).first.destroy

```



This behaviour can be disabled by setting the configuration option. In a future

version, `false` will be the default setting.



- `double_tap_destroys_fully: false`



### Recovery



Recovery is easy. Just invoke `recover` on it, like this:



```ruby

Paranoiac.only_deleted.where("name = ?", "not dead yet").first.recover

```



All associations marked as `dependent: :destroy` are also recursively recovered.



If you would like to disable this behavior, you can call `recover` with the

`recursive` option:



```ruby

Paranoiac.only_deleted.where("name = ?", "not dead yet").first.recover(recursive: false)

```



If you would like to change this default behavior for one model, you can use

the `recover_dependent_associations` option



```ruby

class Paranoiac < ActiveRecord::Base

  acts_as_paranoid recover_dependent_associations: false

end

```



By default, dependent records will be recovered if they were deleted within 2

minutes of the object upon which they depend.



This restores the objects to the state before the recursive deletion without

restoring other objects that were deleted earlier.



The behavior is only available when both parent and dependant are using

timestamp fields to mark deletion, which is the default behavior.



This window can be changed with the `dependent_recovery_window` option:



```ruby

class Paranoiac < ActiveRecord::Base

  acts_as_paranoid

  has_many :paranoids, dependent: :destroy

end



class Paranoid < ActiveRecord::Base

  belongs_to :paranoic



  # Paranoid objects will be recovered alongside Paranoic objects

  # if they were deleted within 10 minutes of the Paranoic object

  acts_as_paranoid dependent_recovery_window: 10.minutes

end

```



or in the recover statement



```ruby

Paranoiac.only_deleted.where("name = ?", "not dead yet").first

  .recover(recovery_window: 30.seconds)

```



### recover!



You can invoke `recover!` if you wish to raise an error if the recovery fails.

The error generally stems from ActiveRecord.



```ruby

Paranoiac.only_deleted.where("name = ?", "not dead yet").first.recover!

# => ActiveRecord::RecordInvalid: Validation failed: Name already exists

```



Optionally, you may also raise the error by passing `raise_error: true` to the

`recover` method. This behaves the same as `recover!`.



```ruby

Paranoiac.only_deleted.where("name = ?", "not dead yet").first.recover(raise_error: true)

```



### Validation



ActiveRecord's built-in uniqueness validation does not account for records

deleted by ActsAsParanoid. If you want to check for uniqueness among

non-deleted records only, use the macro `validates_as_paranoid` in your model.

Then, instead of using `validates_uniqueness_of`, use

`validates_uniqueness_of_without_deleted`. This will keep deleted records from

counting against the uniqueness check.



```ruby

class Paranoiac < ActiveRecord::Base

  acts_as_paranoid

  validates_as_paranoid

  validates_uniqueness_of_without_deleted :name

end



p1 = Paranoiac.create(name: 'foo')

p1.destroy



p2 = Paranoiac.new(name: 'foo')

p2.valid? #=> true

p2.save



p1.recover #=> fails validation!

```



### Status



A paranoid object could be deleted or destroyed fully.



You can check if the object is deleted with the `deleted?` helper



```ruby

Paranoiac.create(name: 'foo').destroy

Paranoiac.with_deleted.first.deleted? #=> true

```



After the first call to `.destroy` the object is `deleted?`.



You can check if the object is fully destroyed with `destroyed_fully?` or `deleted_fully?`.



```ruby

Paranoiac.create(name: 'foo').destroy

Paranoiac.with_deleted.first.deleted? #=> true

Paranoiac.with_deleted.first.destroyed_fully? #=> false

p1 = Paranoiac.with_deleted.first

p1.destroy # this fully destroys the object

p1.destroyed_fully? #=> true

p1.deleted_fully? #=> true

```



### Scopes



As you've probably guessed, `with_deleted` and `only_deleted` are scopes. You

can, however, chain them freely with other scopes you might have.



For example:



```ruby

Paranoiac.pretty.with_deleted

```



This is exactly the same as:



```ruby

Paranoiac.with_deleted.pretty

```



You can work freely with scopes and it will just work:



```ruby

class Paranoiac < ActiveRecord::Base

  acts_as_paranoid

  scope :pretty, where(pretty: true)

end



Paranoiac.create(pretty: true)



Paranoiac.pretty.count #=> 1

Paranoiac.only_deleted.count #=> 0

Paranoiac.pretty.only_deleted.count #=> 0



Paranoiac.first.destroy



Paranoiac.pretty.count #=> 0

Paranoiac.only_deleted.count #=> 1

Paranoiac.pretty.only_deleted.count #=> 1

```



### Associations



Associations are also supported.



From the simplest behaviors you'd expect to more nifty things like the ones

mentioned previously or the usage of the `:with_deleted` option with

`belongs_to`



```ruby

class Parent < ActiveRecord::Base

  has_many :children, class_name: "ParanoiacChild"

end



class ParanoiacChild < ActiveRecord::Base

  acts_as_paranoid

  belongs_to :parent



  # You may need to provide a foreign_key like this

  belongs_to :parent_including_deleted, class_name: "Parent",

    foreign_key: 'parent_id', with_deleted: true

end



parent = Parent.first

child = parent.children.create

parent.destroy



child.parent #=> nil

child.parent_including_deleted #=> Parent (it works!)

```



### Callbacks



There are couple of callbacks that you may use when dealing with deletion and

recovery of objects. There is `before_recover` and `after_recover` which will

be triggered before and after the recovery of an object respectively.



Default ActiveRecord callbacks such as `before_destroy` and `after_destroy` will

be triggered around `.destroy!` and `.destroy_fully!`.



```ruby

class Paranoiac < ActiveRecord::Base

  acts_as_paranoid



  before_recover :set_counts

  after_recover :update_logs

end

```



## Caveats



Watch out for these caveats:



- You cannot use scopes named `with_deleted` and `only_deleted`

- You cannot use scopes named `deleted_inside_time_window`,

  `deleted_before_time`, `deleted_after_time` **if** your paranoid column's

  type is `time`

- You cannot name association `*_with_deleted`

- `unscoped` will return all records, deleted or not



# Acknowledgements



* To [Rick Olson](https://github.com/technoweenie) for creating `acts_as_paranoid`

* To [cheerfulstoic](https://github.com/cheerfulstoic) for adding recursive recovery

* To [Jonathan Vaught](https://github.com/gravelpup) for adding paranoid validations

* To [Geoffrey Hichborn](https://github.com/phene) for improving the overral code quality and adding support for after_commit

* To [flah00](https://github.com/flah00) for adding support for STI-based associations (with :dependent)

* To [vikramdhillon](https://github.com/vikramdhillon) for the idea and initial implementation of support for string column type

* To [Craig Walker](https://github.com/softcraft-development) for Rails 3.1 support and fixing various pending issues

* To [Charles G.](https://github.com/chuckg) for Rails 3.2 support and for making a desperately needed global code refactoring

* To [Gonçalo Silva](https://github.com/goncalossilva) for supporting this gem prior to v0.4.3

* To [Jean Boussier](https://github.com/byroot) for initial Rails 4.0.0 support

* To [Matijs van Zuijlen](https://github.com/mvz) for Rails 4.1 and 4.2 support

* To [Andrey Ponomarenko](https://github.com/sjke) for Rails 5 support

* To [Daniel Rice](https://github.com/danielricecodes), [Josh Bryant](https://github.com/jbryant92), and [Romain Alexandre](https://github.com/RomainAlexandre) for Rails 6.0 support.



See `LICENSE`.