Data Backup and Removal

This article describes how removed data is backed up and when it is removed permanently.

What is deleted_at

Every record that you create in our database has a couple of properties built-in. One of those properties is deleted_at which is null when the record is created.
When you delete a record, our system by default fills this property with a datetime of the delete operation.

For example, you can delete a record like this:

mutation DefaultDelete {
  record_delete(id: "3") {
    deleted_at
  	id
  }
}

From now on, most GraphQL queries will not show those records anymore. You can get them again by filtering records by existing deleted_at property (deleted_at: { exists: true }).

Fo example:

query records {
  records(
    per_page: 10
    filter: {
      deleted_at: { exists: true }
    }
  ) {
    results {
      deleted_at
      id
    }
  }
}

Automatic delayed permanent removal

After 30 days of the date set in deleted_at, the data will be permanently deleted at 5am UTC.

For example, if deleted_at is 2020-03-15T14:28:48.153Z (15 March 2020, 14:28 PM), the record will be deleted 30 days later at 5am (14 April 2020, 5 AM). Until this date you can still recover it by setting deleted_at to null.

Manual permanent removal

You can force permanent removal by setting the deleted_at value to a date more than 30 days ago.

For example:

You want the record to be deleted as soon as possible.
Assume it is 30 April 2020, you would set deleted_at to a date that is more than 30 days ago, for example March 10, which means it will be permanently deleted in the next purge process at 5am UTC.

mutation Delete {
  record_update(
    id: "3"
    record: {
      deleted_at: "2020-03-15T14:28:48.153Z"
    }
  ) {
    id
  }
}

Undeleting data

If you want to bring back a record, you can nullify deleted_at and this record will not be marked as deleted.

mutation Undelete {
  record_update(
    id: "3"
    record: { deleted_at: null }
  ) {
    id
  }
}

You can also set deleted_at to a different, future date to prolong its permanent removal, or move date backwards to speed up its removal.