ART-1005 Published Database Design High

Soft delete vs hard delete

Soft delete only sets deleted = 1, so the row can be restored; hard delete removes it.

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UPDATE article SET deleted = 1, deleted_at = SYSDATETIME() WHERE id = ? DELETE FROM article WHERE id = ? List pages add WHERE deleted = 0.

#soft delete#trash#restore

Record details

Id (IDENTITY)5
Row version (@Version)1
Created26 Oct 2026 20:21
Updated09 Nov 2026 20:54
Published01 Oct 2026 20:21
Read09 Nov 2026 20:54
Pinned26 Oct 2026 15:21

History (activity_log)

No actions recorded yet.

Captured by a Hibernate StatementInspector and by the JdbcTemplate code. ? marks a parameter: values are sent separately, which keeps SQL injection out.

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SELECT
  COUNT(*)                                                                AS total,
  SUM(CASE WHEN deleted = 0 AND archived = 0 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)           AS active,
  SUM(CASE WHEN deleted = 0 AND archived = 0 AND status = 'DRAFT' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)       AS drafts,
  SUM(CASE WHEN deleted = 0 AND archived = 0 AND status = 'PUBLISHED' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)   AS published,
  SUM(CASE WHEN deleted = 0 AND archived = 0 AND status = 'UNPUBLISHED' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS unpublished,
  SUM(CASE WHEN deleted = 0 AND archived = 0 AND pinned = 1 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)    AS pinned,
  SUM(CASE WHEN deleted = 0 AND favourite = 1 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)                  AS favourites,
  SUM(CASE WHEN deleted = 0 AND archived = 0 AND is_read = 0 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)   AS unread,
  SUM(CASE WHEN deleted = 0 AND locked = 1 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)                     AS locked,
  SUM(CASE WHEN deleted = 0 AND archived = 1 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)                   AS archived,
  SUM(CASE WHEN deleted = 1 THEN 1 ELSE 0 END)                                    AS trash
FROM article

select a1_0.id,a1_0.archived,a1_0.archived_at,a1_0.category,a1_0.code,a1_0.content,a1_0.created_at,a1_0.deleted,a1_0.deleted_at,a1_0.favourite,a1_0.locked,a1_0.locked_at,a1_0.locked_reason,a1_0.merged_into_id,a1_0.pinned,a1_0.pinned_at,a1_0.priority,a1_0.published_at,a1_0.is_read,a1_0.read_at,a1_0.row_version,a1_0.source_id,a1_0.status,a1_0.summary,a1_0.tags,a1_0.title,a1_0.updated_at from article a1_0 where a1_0.id=?

select top (?) al1_0.id,al1_0.action,al1_0.article_code,al1_0.article_id,al1_0.created_at,al1_0.detail from activity_log al1_0 where al1_0.article_id=? order by al1_0.id desc

Soft delete vs hard delete

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