The Assignment Deletion Batch is a process used to easily delete all the information associated with one or more assignments from the system including the associated authorizations and employees.
The benefits of removing this information from the system depends on the environment, but can include compliance with legal requirements to decreasing data storage size, which may result in improved performance.
The process of deleting assignment and employee data involves the following steps.
Note that the following process outlines how to delete potentially enormous amounts of data. Please exercise caution when using this feature, as there is the possibility of user error resulting in loss of critical data. This process is permanent and irreversible.
Enabling Access
Access to this feature can be separated to allow different security configurations. For example, access can be limited so that some roles can set the Delete After Date field, but not fill and execute the Assignment Deletion Batch process.
Delete After Date: Navigate to the Role Maintenance screen in the Security Maintenance menu section and add View and Edit screen section rights for Assignment Deletion Date.
Assignment Deletion Batch: Navigate to the Role Maintenance screen in the Security Maintenance menu section and add the desired combination of View, Add, Delete and Execute screen rights for Assignment Deletion Batch Summary.
Setting the Delete Date
The Assignment Details screen contains a Delete After Date field that specifies the date on which the assignment will be eligible to be added to new Assignment Deletion Batches.
Figure 1: Delete After Date Field
This date can be any date in the future. For example, the assignment might need to be deleted 4 years from the current date. It can also be set to the current date or any date in the past to facilitate retroactively deleting assignment groups.
Create and Process the Deletion Batch
Assignment Deletion Batches
The System level Assignment Deletion Batches screen displays all finished and pending batches, and is also used to create new batches. Navigate to the screen by utilizing the Global Search.
Create a new Assignment Deletion Batch by clicking on
in this grid, or view/edit existing batches by clicking on
.
Figure 2: Listing of Assignment Deletion Batches
Assignment Deletion Batch Details
The Assignment Deletion Batch Details screen is where the criteria for a new Assignment Deletion Batch is specified. This can be accessed by creating a new Assignment Deletion Batch.
Figure 3: Creating a new batch
The following fields are available on the Assignment Deletion Batch Summary screen:
Name: Used to easily identify the Assignment Deletion Batch.
Up To And Including Date: This is the date that is compared to the Delete After Date field for all assignments in the current company. Any Delete After Date that falls on or before the date in this field is added to the batch. Future dates are not allowed.
For example, if two assignments exist, one with a Delete After Date of 3/3/17 and another with 4/4/17 and this field is set to 4/4/17, both assignments will be included in the batch. If the date on the batch is set one day earlier, it would only include the 3/3/17 assignment.
The expected use case for creating batches is to use the current date and fill the batch with assignments that have a delete date that has passed. However, the field can be set to any date in the past as well. This can act as a powerful tool to create multiple batches, especially when retroactively deleting a large amount of assignments. Multiple batches can be beneficial for time management reasons (e.g., running smaller deletion batches on weekends) or data management reasons (e.g., auditing smaller lists of assignments to delete).
Click on
to see the list of assignments to be deleted.
Figure 4: Filled but not executed batch
Pending batches show basic information for the assignments to be deleted. The batch contents will not change after being created so the necessary time can be taken to audit results. This is the last chance to audit the batch contents before deleting the assignments and associated authorizations. If the list is not satisfactory, use the
button to delete the batch and create another.
WARNING: Again, moving forward will remove potentially enormous amounts of data. Please exercise caution when using this feature, as there is the possibility of user error resulting in loss of critical data. This process is permanent and irreversible.
Click on
to start deleting assignments. Only one Assignment Deletion Batch may run at any one time, although multiple batches can be queued.
Note: A top priority of the Assignment Deletion Batch is to affect performance of the system as little as possible. This means that the deletion speed of the batch will lower as system usage rises. If maximum deletion speed is desired, it is recommended to run smaller batches during times of known low system usage.
E-Signature Requests, Documents Delete
E-signature documents associated with assignments are deleted like regular documents, with 2 exceptions:
The documents are additionally deleted from the e-signature document provider, and
If the documents are in the status of <Signature(s) Requested>, they are additionally cancelled at the e-signature provider.
Refer to the Configuring and Using Electronic Signature Documents user manual for additional details about this process.
Automatic Employee Delete
After an assignment is successfully deleted from the system, the batch will search for any other assignments within the company for the employee associated with the deleted assignment. If no assignments are found, the system will delete all information in the system for that employee, including Authorization scenarios that never resulted in an Assignment.
When this occurs, the log for the batch will show that the assignment’s employee was also deleted.
Figure 5: Example Results of a Batch
Things to Note
After processing a deletion batch, any deleted records that had an "active" status will have the record's license credited back.
Deleting authorizations by batch is also supported in the Assignment Deletion Batches screen.