Deleting entities - what happens?

All of the data that HelpMaster collects is stored in a Microsoft SQL Server database.  HelpMaster allows the deletion of system codes, entities and other information via the interface.  The following delete behaviour may apply

Deleting system codes, issue codes and other "drop-down" box codes

Whenever a job, client, asset, site or anything else in HelpMaster links to a system code, and that system code is then deleted, the entity that was linking to it will still point to that system code.  Behind the scenes, the system code is only marked as deleted - it isn't actually completely deleted from the database.  This means that the system code will not appear in any of the drop-down boxes, or the problem hierarchy tree, so it can't be used again for new entities.

However, any existing entities that are linked to it will display the code when they are viewed.

There is an exception to this rule.  If the system code has never been linked to anything, then it will be permanently deleted from the database.

Deleting clients, assets, sites, knowledge base articles

The same principle applies also to other entities like clients, assets, site etc.

If these things are linked to other entities, or to jobs, they won't actually be deleted outright from the database if you try to delete them - they will only marked as deleted. This means that if you open a job that was logged by or for a deleted client, you'll still the client as part of the job as normal.

Deleted clients, assets, sites etc will not be displayed in any of the search screens.

Un-deleting

If a system code, or entity has been deleted and they were participating in a database relationship, they are only "soft" deleted - that is, the actual record still exists in the database - it is just marked as being deleted.  This delete mark is implemented as a boolean "bit" field in the database for each entity type.  "Deleted" system codes, and other entities (clients, sites, assets etc) can be re-activated by changing the database field "IsDeleted" from a 1 to a 0. System codes are located in a table called "tblSystemCodes". Issues are located in "tblIssues", and other entities such as client, assets and sites can be found in "tblClient", "tblAssets" and "tblSite" respectively.

Please note that direct manipulation of the HelpMaster database should only be performed by an experience database administrator. Please make a backup of your database before performing any work of this type.