objection-soft-delete

A plugin that adds soft-delete functionality to Objection.js

Installation

NPM

1npm i objection-soft-delete --save

Yarn

1yarn add objection-soft-delete

Usage

Mixin the plugin on an object representing a table that uses a boolean column as a flag for soft delete

1// Import objection model.
2const Model = require('objection').Model;
3
4// Import the plugin
5const softDelete = require('objection-soft-delete');
6
7// Mixin the plugin and specify the column to to use.  'deleted' will be used if none is specified:
8class User extends softDelete({ columnName: 'deleted' })(Model) {
9  static get tableName() {
10    return 'Users';
11  }
12  
13  static get jsonSchema() {
14    return {
15      type: 'object',
16      required: [],
17
18      properties: {
19        id: { type: 'integer' },
20        // matches the columnName passed above
21        deleted: { type: 'boolean' },
22        // other columns
23      },
24    }
25  }
26}

Note: Make sure the deleted field of your table has a default value of false (and, while not required, you'll probably want to make it not nullable as well). A deleted value of NULL will result in this plugin producing unexpected behavior.

When .delete() or .del() is called for that model, the matching row(s) are flagged true instead of deleted

Delete a User:

1await User.query().where('id', 1).delete(); // db now has: { User id: 1, deleted: true, ... }

Or:

1const user = await User.query().where('id', 1).first();
2await user.$query().delete(); // same

Deleted rows are still in the db:

1const deletedUser = await User.query().where('id', 1).first(); // => { User id: 1, deleted: true, ... }

Filter out deleted rows without having to remember each model's "deleted" columnName:

1const activeUsers = await User.query().whereNotDeleted();

Get only deleted rows:

1const deletedUsers = await User.query().whereDeleted();

Restore row(s):

1await User.query().where('id', 1).undelete(); // db now has: { User id: 1, deleted: false, ... }

Permanently remove row(s) from the db:

1await User.query.where('id', 1).hardDelete(); // => row with id:1 is permanently deleted

Filtering out deleted/undeleted records in .eager() or .joinRelation()

Using the named filters

A notDeleted and a deleted filter will be added to the list of named filters for any model that mixes in the plugin. These filters use the .whereNotDeleted() and .whereDeleted() functions to filter records, and can be used without needing to remember the specific columnName for any model:

1// some other Model with a relation to the `User` model:
2const group = await UserGroup.query()
3  .where('id', 1)
4  .first()
5  .eager('users(notDeleted)'); // => now group.users contains only records that are not deleted

Or:

1// some other Model with a relation to the `User` model:
2const group = await UserGroup.query()
3  .where('id', 1)
4  .first()
5  .eager('users(deleted)'); // => now group.users contains only records that are deleted

With .joinRelation():

1// some other Model with a relation to the `User` model:
2const group = await UserGroup.query()
3  .where('id', 1)
4  .joinRelation('users(notDeleted)')
5  .where('users.firstName', 'like', 'a%'); // => all groups that have an undeleted user whose first name starts with 'a';

Using a relationship filter

A filter can be applied directly to the relationship definition to ensure that deleted/undeleted rows never appear:

1// some other class that has a FK to User:
2class UserGroup extends Model {
3  static get tableName() {
4    return 'UserGroups';
5  }
6  
7  ...
8  
9  static get relationMappings() {
10    return {
11      users: {
12        relation: Model.ManyToManyRelation,
13        modelClass: User,
14        join: {
15          from: 'UserGroups.id',
16          through: {
17            from: 'GroupUsers.groupId',
18            to: 'GroupUsers.userId',
19          },
20          to: 'Users.id',
21        },
22        filter: (f) => {
23          f.whereNotDeleted(); // or f.whereDeleted(), as needed.
24        },
25      },
26    }
27  }
28}

then:

1const group = await UserGroup.query()
2  .where('id', 1)
3  .first()
4  .eager('users'); // => `User` rows are filtered out automatically without having to specify the filter here

Per-model columnName

If for some reason you have to deal with different column names for different models (legacy code/schemas can be a bear!), all functionality is fully supported:

1class User extends softDelete({ columnName: 'deleted' })(Model) {
2  ...
3}
4
5class UserGroup extends softDelete({ columnName: 'inactive' })(Model) {
6  ...
7}
8
9// everything will work as expected:
10await User.query()
11  .whereNotDeleted(); // => all undeleted users
12
13await UserGroup.query()
14  .whereNotDeleted(); // => all undeleted user groups
15
16await UserGroup.query()
17  .whereNotDeleted()
18  .eager('users(notDeleted)'); // => all undeleted user groups, with all related undeleted users eagerly loaded
19
20await User.query()
21  .whereDeleted()
22  .eager('groups(deleted)'); // => all deleted users, with all related deleted user groups eagerly loaded
23
24await User.query()
25  .whereNotDeleted()
26  .joinRelation('groups(notDeleted)')
27  .where('groups.name', 'like', '%local%')
28  .eager('groups(notDeleted)'); // => all undeleted users that belong to undeleted user groups that have a name containing the string 'local', eagerly load all undeleted groups for said users.
29
30// and so on...

Using with .upsertGraph()

This plugin was actually born out of a need to have .upsertGraph() soft delete in some tables, and hard delete in others, so it plays nice with .upsertGraph():

1// a model with soft delete
2class Phone extends softDelete(Model) {
3  static get tableName() {
4    return 'Phones';
5  }
6}
7
8// a model without soft delete
9class Email extends Model {
10  static get tableName() {
11    return 'Emails';
12  }
13}
14
15// assume a User model that relates to both, and the following existing data:
16User {
17  id: 1,
18  name: 'Johnny Cash',
19  phones: [
20    {
21      id: 6,
22      number: '+19195551234',
23    },
24  ],
25  emails: [
26    {
27      id: 3,
28      address: 'mib@americanrecords.com',
29    },
30  ]
31}
32
33// then:
34
35await User.query().upsertGraph({
36  id: 1,
37  name: 'Johnny Cash',
38  phones: [],
39  emails: [],
40}); // => phone id 6 will be flagged deleted (and will still be related to Johnny!), email id 3 will be removed from the database

Lifecycle Functions

One issue that comes with doing soft deletes is that your calls to .delete() will actually trigger lifecycle functions for .update(), which may not be expected or desired. To help address this, some context flags have been added to the queryContext that is passed into lifecycle functions to help discern whether the event that triggered (e.g.) $beforeUpdate was a true update, a soft delete, or an undelete:

1  $beforeUpdate(opt, queryContext) {
2    if (queryContext.softDelete) {
3      // do something before a soft delete, possibly including calling your $beforeDelete function.
4      // Think this through carefully if you are using additional plugins, as their lifecycle
5      // functions may execute before this one depending on how you have set up your inheritance chain!
6    } else if (queryContext.undelete) {
7      // do something before an undelete
8    } else {
9      // do something before a normal update
10    }
11  }
12  
13  // same procedure for $afterUpdate

Available flags are:

• softDelete
• undelete

Flags will be true if set, and undefined otherwise.

Checking Whether a Model is SoftDelete

All models with the soft delete mixin will have an isSoftDelete property, which returns true.

Options

columnName: the name of the column to use as the soft delete flag on the model (Default: 'deleted'). The column must exist on the table for the model.

You can specify different column names per-model by using the options:

1const softDelete = require('objection-soft-delete')({
2  columnName: 'inactive',
3});

deletedValue: you can set this option to allow a different value than "true" to be set in the specified column. For instance, you can use the following code to make a timestamp (you need knex instance to do so)

1const softDelete = require('objection-soft-delete')({
2  columnName: 'deleted_at',
3  deletedValue: knex.fn.now(),
4});

notDeletedValue: you can set (and should) this option along with deletedValue to allow a different value than "false" to be set in the specified column. For instance, you can use the following code to restore the column to null (you need knex instance to do so)

1const softDelete = require('objection-soft-delete')({
2  columnName: 'deleted_at',
3  deletedValue: knex.fn.now(),
4  notDeletedValue: null,
5});

Tests

Tests can be run with:

1npm test

or:

1yarn test

Linting

The linter can be run with:

1npm run lint

or:

1yarn lint

Contributing

The usual spiel: fork, fix/improve, write tests, submit PR. I try to maintain a (mostly) consistent syntax, but am open to suggestions for improvement. Otherwise, the only two rules are: do good work, and no tests = no merge.