Rails - Apr 2006 - The two methods of handling deleted records. Standards?

Hi all,

I am fiddling with a table of mine where I have chosen to use a column for
tracking whether the row is deleted or not. If I chose the normal method of
physically deleting the rows then everything is fine. But, since I am now
using this alternative method I have to change a lot of code to make it work
"out of the box", by adding :constraints clauses here and there. Also
I have
to override the delete/destroy methods to handle this different scheme.

Now, using this scheme for deleted records (an int column which defaults to
0) seems like a very common solution amongst developers. Wouldn''t it be
nice
(and cool) if ActiveRecord knew how to leave deleted records out from
it''s
finds, except when forced to include them? I mean, then I could code the way
I am normally doing, and I would only have to code extra for the cases when
I really want to find the deleted records (normally the find is only for
these or for one of them). Also, this would make it easier to switch
delete_strategy later on as well.

I was hoping for a general purpose :before_find filter, which I could use to
add the :constraints settings. Such a solution could be utilized in many
other ways too I guess. But, unfortunately there is no such thing in
ActiveRecord. Using this approach could be good, but I would still need to
do some coding to make the delete strategy transparent.

Alternatively one could narrow it down to a delete_strategy setting, which
is either :physical or :logical (which means it is persisted, but to be
disregarded). Default is of course physical. I am myself to new to Ruby to
be able to implement it, but if anyone is able to give me some pointers
I''d
certainly try. I guess this would be an extention to Rails, although I must
admit that I''d like this to be a part of the standard Rails
distribution. At
least if there was extra functionality for handling the deleted records in
the database.

Regards,
Ronny
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Yep that would definitely be cool. I would say you create a new class 
BetterRecord that inherits from ActiveRecord and overrides/extends the 
mentioned methods.

On the other hand, ActiveRecord does a huge load of class/object 
manipulation (adding all those methods and stuff) and makes sure 
dependent rows are being deleted too...

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

I''ve a feeling there''s an acts_as... plugin for this
somewhere....

Alan

-- 
Posted via http://www.ruby-forum.com/.

I seem to recall a plugin that does this... acts_as_paranoid, I think.

On Tuesday, April 18, 2006, at 7:01 PM, Ronny Hanssen
wrote:
>Hi all,
>
>I am fiddling with a table of mine where I have chosen to use a column for
>tracking whether the row is deleted or not. If I chose the normal method of
>physically deleting the rows then everything is fine. But, since I am now
>using this alternative method I have to change a lot of code to make
>it work
>"out of the box", by adding :constraints clauses here and there.
>Also I have
>to override the delete/destroy methods to handle this different scheme.
>
>Now, using this scheme for deleted records (an int column which defaults to
>0) seems like a very common solution amongst developers. Wouldn''t
it
>be nice
>(and cool) if ActiveRecord knew how to leave deleted records out from
it''s
>finds, except when forced to include them? I mean, then I could code
>the way
>I am normally doing, and I would only have to code extra for the cases when
>I really want to find the deleted records (normally the find is only for
>these or for one of them). Also, this would make it easier to switch
>delete_strategy later on as well.
>
>I was hoping for a general purpose :before_find filter, which I
>could use to
>add the :constraints settings. Such a solution could be utilized in many
>other ways too I guess. But, unfortunately there is no such thing in
>ActiveRecord. Using this approach could be good, but I would still need to
>do some coding to make the delete strategy transparent.
>
>Alternatively one could narrow it down to a delete_strategy setting, which
>is either :physical or :logical (which means it is persisted, but to be
>disregarded). Default is of course physical. I am myself to new to Ruby to
>be able to implement it, but if anyone is able to give me some pointers
I''d
>certainly try. I guess this would be an extention to Rails, although I must
>admit that I''d like this to be a part of the standard Rails
>distribution. At
>least if there was extra functionality for handling the deleted records in
>the database.
>
>Regards,
>Ronny
>
>_______________________________________________
>Rails mailing list
>Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
>http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>

_Kevin

-- 
Posted with http://DevLists.com.  Sign up and save your mailbox.

I knew it had to exist:)

Thanks for the pointers. I am about to feel a little paranoid I guess...

I would feel more comfortable if this was a part of the rails core though...
Well... Can''t have it all :)

Ronny


On 18 Apr 2006 19:08:58 -0000, Kevin Olbrich <
devlists-rubyonrails@devlists.com> wrote:
>
> I seem to recall a plugin that does this... acts_as_paranoid, I think.
>
> On Tuesday, April 18, 2006, at 7:01 PM, Ronny Hanssen wrote:
> >Hi all,
> >
> >I am fiddling with a table of mine where I have chosen to use a column
> for
> >tracking whether the row is deleted or not. If I chose the normal
method
> of
> >physically deleting the rows then everything is fine. But, since I am
now
> >using this alternative method I have to change a lot of code to make
> >it work
> >"out of the box", by adding :constraints clauses here and
there.
> >Also I have
> >to override the delete/destroy methods to handle this different scheme.
> >
> >Now, using this scheme for deleted records (an int column which
defaults
> to
> >0) seems like a very common solution amongst developers.
Wouldn''t it
> >be nice
> >(and cool) if ActiveRecord knew how to leave deleted records out from
> it''s
> >finds, except when forced to include them? I mean, then I could code
> >the way
> >I am normally doing, and I would only have to code extra for the cases
> when
> >I really want to find the deleted records (normally the find is only
for
> >these or for one of them). Also, this would make it easier to switch
> >delete_strategy later on as well.
> >
> >I was hoping for a general purpose :before_find filter, which I
> >could use to
> >add the :constraints settings. Such a solution could be utilized in
many
> >other ways too I guess. But, unfortunately there is no such thing in
> >ActiveRecord. Using this approach could be good, but I would still need
> to
> >do some coding to make the delete strategy transparent.
> >
> >Alternatively one could narrow it down to a delete_strategy setting,
> which
> >is either :physical or :logical (which means it is persisted, but to be
> >disregarded). Default is of course physical. I am myself to new to Ruby
> to
> >be able to implement it, but if anyone is able to give me some pointers
> I''d
> >certainly try. I guess this would be an extention to Rails, although I
> must
> >admit that I''d like this to be a part of the standard Rails
> >distribution. At
> >least if there was extra functionality for handling the deleted records
> in
> >the database.
> >
> >Regards,
> >Ronny
> >
> >_______________________________________________
> >Rails mailing list
> >Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> >http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
> >
>
>
> _Kevin
>
> --
> Posted with http://DevLists.com.  Sign up and save your mailbox.
> _______________________________________________
> Rails mailing list
> Rails@lists.rubyonrails.org
> http://lists.rubyonrails.org/mailman/listinfo/rails
>
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