Deleting Records

The functionality to delete records is available in the 4.0.11 codebase.

A record, is just one instance of a form, for example a specific person form, person|1234.

WARNING: This only works with version 5.3 of PHP at the moment.

Enabling the Delete Record Module

In order to delete records, you will need to enable the Delete Records module. To do so go to:

• Configure System
• Configure Modules
• Click the "Sub-Modules" link to the right of the "Pages" module
• Click the "Sub-Modules" link to the right of the "Module Administration" module
• Select the "Delete Records"

Note: With the 4.0.12 release, the name of module does not show up properly in the configure modules menu. To work around this, you should just make sure all sub-modules of the Admin module are enabled

Deleting Records

Before you begin, Back up your database!! As this feature has not been extensively tested and there are no "safe guards" you will want to back up the database so you can recover from any mistakes.

The delete records is only a "command line" only feature. It is not available to the web-interface. To use it, you should open up a terminal to get to the command line. Now change to the directory of your site that contains the index.php file. For example: <source lang='bash'> cd /var/www/iHRIS/manage </source> or <source lang='bash'> cd /var/lib/iHRIS/sites/4.0/manage/pages </source>

The deleteRecord has been registered as a sub-page of the admin module. So, once you are in the same directory as index.php, you can use the delete record feature by: <source lang='bash'> php index.php --page=/admin/deleteRecord </source>

Rules for Operation

• 1)Whenever deleting a form instance (or record) you are forced to also delete any child forms of that record
  • For example, when deleting a person form, there may be one or more child forms person_position that will be need to be deleted.
• 2)Whenever deleting a record, it will show you and all the forms that the form link to
  • For example a person_position form links to a position form. If that position form was created just for that person, you may want to delete that position
• 3)Whenever deleting a record, it will show you all the forms that link to that form
  • For example, if you are deleting a position form, there may be one or more person_position forms that link to that position. Once you have deleted a position, than you 'must delete these person_position forms.

Clearing Out Cached Data

Once we have deleted a record, we need to clear out any cached data referring to that record. The simplest way is to restart apache and memcached: <source lang='bash'> sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart sudo /etc/init.d/memcached restart </source>

We also need to clear out the cached forms to remove the deleted records from there. They will be re-generated when the reports are cached again. <source lang='bash'> php index.php --page=/CachedForms/dropAll </source>

Regenerate Reports

You will need to force regenerate any reports that referred to any of the data that you deleted.

Example Output

Here is an example of deleting a person from the iHRIS Manage Demonstration site. <source lang='bash'> litlfred@cumin:/var/www/iHRIS/4.0-dev/manage$ php index.php --page=/admin/deleteRecord </source>

Example Outuput:Choosing the Main Record To Delete

We have run the command, the first thing it asks us is which record we want to delete. We tell it person|8549 and Show the details of that person to ensure we have the correct one <source lang='bash'> Please enter the form and ID of the record you wish to delete. For example person|1000.: person|8549 Array (

   [0] => person|8549

) Would you like to delete records related to person|8549? (Yes/No/Show): s firstname => Baicr nationality => country|TAI othername => residence => district|24 surname => Thaiwi surname_ignore => 0 password =>

</source>

Example Output:Child Forms

We now verify that we have the correct person so we continue with the deletion process. It then shows us all the child forms of person|8549. If we wish, we can select individual child forms to delete, but if we do delete a form, we always delete its child forms. Since we want to delete everything, we simply go ahead and keep all forms selected and quit the selection process. <source lang='bash'> Would you like to delete records related to person|8549? (Yes/No/Show): y Please select child forms related to person|8549 to delete [X] 0) person|8549 Links By nationality To country|TAI Links By residence To district|9 Child Forms: [X] 1) person_position|8551 Links By position To position|8548 Parent Form person|8549 Child Forms: [X] 2) salary|8552 Links By salary To currency|1 Parent Form person_position|8551 [X] 3) demographic|8550 Links By gender To gender|F Links By marital_status To marital_status|1 Parent Form person|8549 Please select an option or enter q to quit selection process: q </source>

This shows a menu used to select the forms you want to delete. This menu forces the Rule 1 namely that if you select to delete a form, all children (and grand-children and great-grand-children and... ) of that form will be selected to be deleted as well. Some examples:

• Selecting 0 will also select 1, 2 and 3 as they are children
• Selecting 1 will also select 2 as it is a child
• Selecting 2 does not select any others as there are no children for 2
• Selecting 3 does not select any others as there are no children for 3

Notice that you see all the forms that a form links to and links from. Pay attention to this as you will need it later.

Next we confirm that we want to all the selected child forms. It then deletes the four selected forms <source lang='bash'> Would you like to delete all the selected forms linked person|8549 as children/grand-children? (Yes/No): y I2CE: I2CE->raiseError (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:180) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->deleteForms (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:132) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->actionCommandLine (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/lib/I2CE_Page.php:492) I2CE_Page->display (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/lib/I2CE_Wrangler.php:89) I2CE_Wrangler->wrangle (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/ihris-manage/sites/Demo/pages/index.php:60): Deleting person|8549 I2CE: I2CE->raiseError (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:180) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->deleteForms (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:194) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->deleteForms (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:132) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->actionCommandLine (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/lib/I2CE_Page.php:492) I2CE_Page->display (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/lib/I2CE_Wrangler.php:89) I2CE_Wrangler->wrangle (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/ihris-manage/sites/Demo/pages/index.php:60): Deleting person_position|8551 I2CE: I2CE->raiseError (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:180) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->deleteForms (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:194) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->deleteForms (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:194) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->deleteForms (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:132) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->actionCommandLine (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/lib/I2CE_Page.php:492) I2CE_Page->display (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/lib/I2CE_Wrangler.php:89) I2CE_Wrangler->wrangle (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/ihris-manage/sites/Demo/pages/index.php:60): Deleting salary|8552 I2CE: I2CE->raiseError (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:180) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->deleteForms (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:194) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->deleteForms (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:132) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->actionCommandLine (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/lib/I2CE_Page.php:492) I2CE_Page->display (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/lib/I2CE_Wrangler.php:89) I2CE_Wrangler->wrangle (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/ihris-manage/sites/Demo/pages/index.php:60): Deleting demographic|8550 </source>

Example Output: Related Records

Now, every form that is linked to a deleted form, that a deleted form links to, or is a parent form of a linked form is added to a list of forms that we should potentially delete. We should only delete forms that we know are associated to this person and this person only. In this case, we only want to delete the position form that the person_position form is linked to.

First we skip deleting the linked country of their nationality <source lang='bash'> Would you like to delete records related to country|TAI: Taifafeki? (Yes/No/Show): n </source> Next, we skip deleting the linked district of residence. <source lang='bash'> Would you like to delete records related to district|9: Gatarama, East, Taifafeki? (Yes/No/Show): n </source> Next, we skip deleting the linked gender <source lang='bash'> Would you like to delete records related to gender|F: Female? (Yes/No/Show): n </source> Next, we skip deleting the linked marital status <source lang='bash'> Would you like to delete records related to marital_status|1: Single? (Yes/No/Show): n </source> Now we come to the position form that was linked to by the person_position form. First let us show the details. <source lang='bash'> Would you like to delete records related to position|8548: CHO101: Nurse (Gisamba Hospital, Emergency Service)? (Yes/No/Show): s i2ce_hidden => 0 code => CHO101 comments => department => department|10 description => facility => facility|4 interview_comments => job => job|2230-1B posted_date => 1990-10-13 pos_type => | proposed_end_date => 0000-00-00 00:00:00 proposed_hiring_date => 1990-10-13 proposed_salary => = source => status => position_status|closed supervisor => position|8528 title => Nurse </source> Now that things look OK, we go ahead and continue with deleting this position. <source lang='bash'> Would you like to delete records related to position|8548: CHO101: Nurse (Gisamba Hospital, Emergency Service)? (Yes/No/Show): y </source> Next, as we did with the person form above, we need to select any child forms of the position form. In this case, there are none so our selection menu is much shorter.

If you notice, you will see that the position we are deleting, position|8548, links to position|8528 via the supervisor field. Which means that the position|8528 is the supervisory position of position|8548. Since the position|8528 is not directly related to the person we are deleting, we will not want to delete position|8528 later on in the process. <source lang='bash'> Please select child forms related to position|8548 to delete [X] 0) position|8548 Links By department To department|10 Links By facility To facility|4 Links By job To job|2230-1B Links By status To position_status|closed Links By supervisor To position|8528 Please select an option or enter q to quit selection process: q </source> Now we confirm we want to delete the postion|8548.. <source lang='bash'> Would you like to delete all the selected forms linked position|8548 as children/grand-children? (Yes/No): y I2CE: I2CE->raiseError (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:180) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->deleteForms (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/modules/Admin/modules/DeleteRecord/lib/I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord.php:132) I2CE_Page_DeleteRecord->actionCommandLine (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/lib/I2CE_Page.php:492) I2CE_Page->display (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/I2CE/modules/Pages/lib/I2CE_Wrangler.php:89) I2CE_Wrangler->wrangle (/home/litlfred/rocket_cats/dev/ihris-manage/sites/Demo/pages/index.php:60): Deleting position|8548 </source> Now we return to the list potential records to delete that were related to what we have already deleted.

The first record it asks us to delete is person_position|8551. This is a bug, and it really should not be asking to delete this as we already have deleted it. So just ignore it for the time being. <source lang='bash'> Would you like to delete records related to person_position|8551? (Yes/No/Show): n </source> We continue with our list of potential records to delete, but we are not interested in deleting them, so we answer No for all of them <source lang='bash'> Would you like to delete records related to currency|1: TF ¤? (Yes/No/Show): n Would you like to delete records related to department|10: Emergency Service? (Yes/No/Show): n Would you like to delete records related to facility|4: Gisamba Hospital? (Yes/No/Show): n Would you like to delete records related to job|2230-1B: Nurse? (Yes/No/Show): n Would you like to delete records related to position_status|closed: Closed? (Yes/No/Show): n Would you like to delete records related to position|8528: CHO97: Nurse (Gisamba Hospital, Emergency Service)? (Yes/No/Show): n </source>

Example Output: Restarting Apache

We are done deleting. We need to restart apache and memcached. Like all operations on the command line that change the database, this is very important to do. It ensures that all caches are clear and we do not have any conflicts in what is stored in the database and the cache. <source lang='bash'>

litlfred@cumin:/var/www/iHRIS/4.0-dev/manage$ sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

• Restarting web server apache2

 ... waiting     

litlfred@cumin:/var/www/iHRIS/4.0-dev/manage$ sudo /etc/init.d/memcached restart Restarting memcached: memcached. </source>

Preserving Deletions

All records that are deleted are automatically stored in the database in the form_history table with the deletion time and all the data stored as a json encoded string.