Soft Delete — Not a Feature, but a Standard
At PDP Mobile, we standardized soft delete as an architectural rule for legally significant data: the history of operations does not disappear, and deletion, viewing, and cleanup are tightly controlled by roles.
In PDP Mobile, we standardized soft delete as an architectural rule for legally significant data. Why? Because the history of operations — permits, requests, readings — is not something you can “accidentally wipe from production on Friday evening” 😅
Deletion now works like this:
- data does not disappear physically; it is marked as deleted
- there is a trash bin in the Wiki
- viewing deleted items is available only to ADMIN and EDITOR
- full cleanup is available only to ADMIN
- we implemented cascading deletion and restoration for the entire document subtree
In essence, this is a balance between UX and compliance: to the user, the document looks deleted, while the system preserves the history as it should. Against the backdrop of the trend toward auditability, data governance, and increasingly strict requirements for change tracking, this is already the baseline, not “just being safe.”
When data can become evidence in a dispute, DELETE without a trace has a questionable vibe.