Setup and Use of Soft Deletions in Notes/Domino 5.x
Problem:
How are Soft Deletions set up and used in Notes/Domino Release 5?
Solution:
Soft deletions are a new feature in Notes Release 5 that allow the recovery of deleted documents for a period of time defined by the user. In order to correctly use this feature, some setup is required:
1. In the Advanced Tab of the Database Properties (select File, Database, Properties), select 'Allow Soft Deletions'.
2. In the Advanced Tab of Database Properties, fill in an hour value in the space after '$Undelete Expire Time (in hours)'; this represents the period of time a soft deletion will be valid for recovery.
Once these selections are made, deleted documents will be available for recovery until they expire. The soft-deleted documents will not appear in your trash folder once the database views have been refreshed (via pressing F9, selecting View, Refresh, or when closing out of the database). In order to view and recover these deleted documents you must create a special view in the database as follows:
1. Open Domino R5 Designer and open the database.
2. From the main menu, select Create, View.
3. In 'View Name' type the desired name (you may call this view anything you wish).
4. In 'View Type' select 'Shared, Contains Deleted Documents' from the drop-down box. This creates a view in the database that allows a user to see all soft-deleted documents. You can now access soft-deleted documents.
5. In order to restore these documents, create an Action or SmartIcon or button or agent that contains the command, @UndeleteDocument. This removes the soft deleted status of a document that has been soft deleted.
Supporting Information:
The R5 mail template already contains a hidden view, $SoftDeletions, that is set up to restore (@UndeleteDocument) or permanently delete the documents. The user can access this view by holding down the CTRL+SHIFT keys while opening the database.
For more information on Soft Deletions in R5, refer to the Domino 5 Designer Help database and the related documents cited below.