# Soft Delete > In a production app, you should probably never really delete anything. [source](https://twitter.com/theebeastmaster/status/966870021099180034) A soft-delete marks a record as deleted, and keeps it in the database for historical reference. ## Installation Add this line to your application's Gemfile: ```ruby gem "soft_delete-workbar", require: "soft_delete" ``` And then execute: $ bundle Or install it yourself as: $ gem install soft_delete-workbar ## Usage Safely "delete" records from your database without losing them permanently. * Add SoftDelete to a model ``` class MyModel < ActiveRecord::Base include SoftDelete end ``` * Add a `deleted_at` column to the model's database table ``` rails g migration AddSoftDeleteToMyModels deleted_at:timestamp ``` * Safely call `MyModel#delete` without losing the record forever ## Methods Please see the `SoftDelete` module and the associated tests for a description of the methods that will be added to your model. * `.not_deleted` - records without a deleted_at timestamp * `.deleted` - records with a deleted_at timestamp * `#delete` - set the deleted_at timestamp * `#delete!` - delete the record from the database * `#destroy` - set the deleted_at timestamp, and run callbacks * `#destroy!` - delete the record from the database, and run callbacks * `#restore` - set the deleted_at timestamp to nil It will be necessary to exclude deleted records when querying the model. Use the `not_deleted` scope that now exists on the model. ```ruby class MyModelsController < ApplicationController def index @my_models = MyModel.not_deleted end end ``` ## Development After checking out the repo, run `bin/setup` to install dependencies. Then, run `rake spec` to run the tests. You can also run `bin/console` for an interactive prompt that will allow you to experiment. To install this gem onto your local machine, run `bundle exec rake install`. To release a new version, update the version number in `version.rb`, and then run `bundle exec rake release`, which will create a git tag for the version, push git commits and tags, and push the `.gem` file to [rubygems.org](https://rubygems.org). ## Contributing Bug reports and pull requests are welcome on GitHub at https://github.com/workbar-dev/soft_delete. ## License The gem is available as open source under the terms of the [MIT License](https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT).