Overview

For various reasons you may wish to permanently remove records from the ProblemTracker database. There are two ways this can be done. First, you can remove all records. This is typically done when you finish an evaluation. Second, you can selectively delete some records that match certain criteria. This is done when you wish to remove records related to an old project or obsolete release. Both are described in detail below.

Delete All Records

Caution: This operation is permanent. It cannot be undone. Please make a backup of your database prior to performing this operation.

While this operation will remove all problem records, attachments, and history, it will leave other ProblemTracker configuration unchanged (data record customization (fields in the data record), option menus, workflow, users, user groups, email configuration, etc.).

This operation is typically used at the end of an evaluation to remove all test records.

To delete all records as well as all attachments and all record history:

1. Login to the workgroup as Admin
2. Click the Admin icon in the button bar
3. Click on the Maintenance button
4. Click on the Delete All Records button. Once this operation is complete, newly added problem records will start with the First Record Number specified in the General Preferences section.

Selectively Remove Records

Caution: This operation is permanent. It cannot be undone. Please make a backup of your database prior to performing this operation.

This operation will delete the records that match certain criteria as well as the attachments to those records. It will also delete all record history associated with those records, except for one history entry (per deleted record) which is created to indicate when (and by which user) the records were deleted. This operation can be used to remove all "closed" records or records from an old release or project that has been completed.

To selectively delete some records please follow the instructions below.

1. Login to the General Preferences page should be set to "Yes" (by default it is set to No). This will make the change permanent (data will be deleted from the database).
2. The user you are logged in as (e.g. Admin) must be a member of at least one User Group that has the "Edit Query Result Set" privilege. Verify that the Admins group has the Edit Query Result Set privilege (by default it does). This will allow you to perform an operation (in this case Delete) on all records that match a Query.
3. The user you are logged in as (e.g. Admin) must be a member of at least one User Group that has the "Delete" privilege. Verify that Admins group has the Delete privilege (by default it does). This will allow you to delete records.
4. Click the Query icon in the button bar.
5. Enter the criteria for the records you wish to delete and click on the Run Query button
6. On the query results page, click the Delete Records button.
7. Click OK for the confirmation dialog and ALL the records matching the current query will be deleted permanently from the database. Note: Even though only the first page of records is displayed, the Delete Records operation will delete all the records returned by the query. The total number of records returned by the current query will be displayed in the status area just below the button bar.
8. If you changed the Remove Records from Database on 'Delete' Operation to "Yes", you may wish to change it back to No so that any other Delete operations are not permanent.