Deleting Entities

You can delete entities with the Documents and Media API. Note that the exact meaning of delete depends on the portal configuration and the delete operation you choose. This is because the Recycle Bin, which is enabled by default, can be used to recover deleted items. Deletions via DLAppService, however, are permanent. To send items to the Recycle Bin, you must use the Capabilities API.

Here, you’ll learn about deleting these entities:

• Files
• File Versions
• File Shortcuts
• Folders

You’ll also learn about using the Recycle Bin.

Files

There are two DLAppService methods you can use to delete files:

• deleteFileEntry(long fileEntryId)

• deleteFileEntryByTitle(long repositoryId, long folderId, String title)

These methods differ only in how they identify a file for deletion. The combination of the folderId and title parameters in deleteFileEntryByTitle uniquely identify a file because it’s impossible for two files in the same folder to share a name. For step-by-step instructions on using these methods, see Deleting Files.

File Versions

When a file is modified, Documents and Media creates a new file version and leaves the previous version intact. Over time, old file versions can accumulate and consume storage space. Fortunately, you can use the Documents and Media API to delete them. Note, however, that there’s no way to send file versions to the Recycle Bin—once you delete them, they’re gone forever.

You can delete file versions with the DLAppService method deleteFileVersion:

deleteFileVersion(long fileEntryId, String version)

See this method’s Javadoc for a description of the parameters. For step-by-step instructions on using this method, see Deleting File Versions.

Identifying File Versions

Since there may be many versions of a file, it’s useful to programmatically identify old versions for deletion. You can do this with FileVersionVersionComparator.

The following example creates such a comparator and uses its compare method to identify old file versions. The code does so by iterating through each approved version of the file (fileVersion). Each iteration uses the compare method to test that file version (fileVersion.getVersion()) against the same file’s current version (fileEntry.getVersion()). If this comparison is greater than 0, then the iteration’s file version (fileVersion) is old and is deleted by deleteFileVersion:

FileVersionVersionComparator comparator = new FileVersionVersionComparator();

for (FileVersion fileVersion: fileEntry.getVersions(WorkflowConstants.STATUS_APPROVED)) {

    if (comparator.compare(fileEntry.getVersion(), fileVersion.getVersion()) > 0) {

        dlAppService.deleteFileVersion(fileVersion.getFileEntryId(), fileVersion.getVersion());
    }
}

File Shortcuts

To delete file shortcuts, use the DLAppService method deleteFileShortcut with the ID of the shortcut you want to delete:

deleteFileShortcut(long fileShortcutId)

For step-by-step instructions on using this method, see Deleting File Shortcuts.

Folders

Deleting folders is similar to deleting files. There are two methods you can use to delete a folder. Click each method to see its Javadoc:

• deleteFolder(long folderId)

• deleteFolder(long repositoryId, long parentFolderId, String name)

Which method you use is up to you—they both delete a folder. For step-by-step instructions on using these methods, see Deleting Folders.

Recycle Bin

Instead of deleting entities, you can move them to the Recycle Bin. Note that the Recycle Bin isn’t part of the Documents and Media API. Although you can use the Recycle Bin API directly, in the case of Documents and Media it’s better to use the Capabilities API. This is because some third-party repositories (e.g., SharePoint) don’t support Recycle Bin functionality. The Capabilities API lets you verify that the repository you’re working in supports the Recycle Bin. It’s therefore a best practice to always use the Capabilities API when moving entities to the Recycle Bin.

For step-by-step instructions on this, see Moving Entities to the Recycle Bin.