Deletion Logging

I’ve learnt a lot over the years, but occasionally I’m reminded of reusable bits of code I created years ago and am still using today. Deletion logging is an example of that. Before I joined Intec I created a lotusscript library with a couple of function to track attempted deletions, either via a log or an email to an administrator. Time and again it’s helped me out, whether to confirm user error or to prove a document must still be in the database somewhere. It’s been very reliable and I’m still using it virtually unchanged, although I have considered convering it into a class or, more recently, into a server-side javascript library. I will at some point and it will probably take less than an hour, but at the moment it’s something I’ve not got round to.

The script library is attached. In the QueryDocumentDelete method of the Database Script, I enter the following code to call the DeletionTrack function:

1. Sub Querydocumentdelete(Source As Notesuidatabase, Continue As Variant)
2.     Dim dc As notesdocumentcollection  
3.     Dim doc As notesdocument
4.     Dim db As notesdatabase
5.     Dim deleteAccess As Variant
6.    
7.     On Error Goto logErr
8.    
9.     deleteAccess = Evaluate(“@UserAccess(@DbName;[DeleteDocuments])”)
10.     If deleteAccess(0) = “1” Then
11.         Set dc = Source.Documents
12.         Set db = Source.Database
13.         Call DeletionTrack(“DELETE”, dc, db)
14.     Else
15.         Msgbox “You do not have delete rights to the database. Please use the relevant button.”, 16, “Delete Aborted”
16.         continue = False
17.     End If
18.     Exit Sub
19.    
20. logErr:
21.     continue = False
22.     Msgbox LogError()
23.     Exit Sub
24. End Sub

In the QueryDocumentUndelete, I enter similar code, tracking any undeletion, but this time without checking access levels because the attempt to delete was already aborted if the user didn’t have access:

1. Sub Querydocumentundelete(Source As Notesuidatabase, Continue As Variant)
2.     Dim dc As notesdocumentcollection  
3.     Dim doc As notesdocument
4.     Dim db As notesdatabase
5.    
6.     On Error Goto logErr
7.    
8.     Set dc = Source.Documents
9.     Set db = Source.Database
10.     Call DeletionTrack(“UNDELETE”, dc, db)
11.     Exit Sub
12.    
13. logErr:
14.     continue = False
15.     Msgbox LogError()
16.     Exit Sub
17. End Sub

This means when the user presses Delete, a log is generated with the type of DELETE, if they press Delete again to unflag the documet(s) for deletion, a log is generated with the type UNDELETE. The DeletionTrack function then uses constants to determine whether logging is enabled, whether logging should be via docuemnts in the database or via email. The DeletionLog and DeletionMail both call a GetDescription where a default description is generated and specific description messages can be generated for particular Form types. This can be useful to capture any unique references, for example, that you might want to search on.

The only downside of this functionality is that if a user has documents flagged for deletion and exits the database, choosing not to delete those documents, no UNDELETE log is created. This is a minor inconvenience and one that needs to be borne in mind, but not one that has ever caused me difficulties.