# Paranoid
[](https://circleci.com/gh/echobind/paranoid)
**Paranoid is a project providing soft delete capabilities**
Paranoid provides an easy mechanism for Ecto-driven projects to soft delete
records in the database. This makes for easy recovery in case of accidental
deletion or to simply retain data.
## Installation
**To install simply add paranoid to your dependencies**
Update `mix.exs` by adding Paranoid.
```elixir
def deps() do
[
{:paranoid, "~> 0.1.0"}
]
```
Once installed, a module must be created similar to the following.
```elixir
defmodule MyApp.Paranoid do
use Paranoid.Ecto, repo: MyApp.Repo
end
```
This will become the primary method of interacting with the Ecto repo.
### Setting up modules for soft delete
In order to support soft delete, each module requires a migration, an instance
of the `use` macro, and updating the schema to include a `deleted_at`
utc_datetime.
**Migration**
Paranoid works by considering any non-null `deleted_at` timestamp to be
"deleted". This migration adds this column.
```elixir
alter table(:your_table) do
add :deleted_at, :utc_datetime
end
```
**Module Updates**
Paranoid makes available changesets for soft deleting and recovery of records. Leveraging `use`, we bring in these functions and make them overridable for any special use cases a project might have.
```elixir
use Paranoid.Changeset
```
In order to leverage the newly added field, the field must be added to your schema.
```elixir
field(:deleted_at, :utc_datetime)
```
### Deleting Records ###
Deleting records is as simple as calling `MyApp.Paranoid.delete(struct)`. If the
given module has `deleted-at` as a column, it will be soft deleted. If it does not, it will simply delete the record.
### Retrieving Soft Deleted Records
Backups are only as good as their recovery. To retrieve soft deleted records, there are two steps.
* Retrieve the deleted record
* Undelete the record
```elixir
# retrieve soft deleted user by adding opts of `include_deleted: true`
user = MyApp.Paranoid.get(MyApp.User, 1, include_deleted: true)
# undelete! the user by setting the deleted_at timestamp to nil
MyApp.Paranoid.undelete!(user)
```
Leveraging `MyApp.Paranoid`, an application can call any of the available
`Ecto.Repo` functions. These will respect the `deleted_at` flag wherever
appropriate. Additionally, these functions will retrieve soft deleted records
when the option `include_deleted` is present.
## License
Paranoid is free software and distributed under the MIT license. More information can be found in the [LICENSE](/LICENSE) file.
## About Echobind
Echobind is a software development consultancy that specializes in Elixir. If you have a software project that needs another set of eyes, learn more at our
[website][website].
[website]: https://echobind.com?utm_source=paranoid
