OHDSI / OHDSI/WebAPI

Deleting concept sets/cohort definitions and impact on analyses

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enhancement
Dominant language
Java
Stars
151
Forks
183
Avg merge
14m
Merged PRs (30d)
2

Description

Discussion points for v3.0

  • Should we consider only performing "soft deletes" in the system? I'd favor this so that we can avoid problems like those listed above.

  • Aging out deleted entities: in the case of cohort definitions, deleting the definition triggers a clean up routine to clear out the data for that cohort in the results schema. If we soft delete an entity, we may want to have a cleanup run but only after certain period of time has passed. In addition, we may want to physically delete the entity definition but this then creates a more complex problem where we need to understand all of the potential relationships and entity ages. Perhaps we need to define a "reference" entity type vs an "analysis" entity that can utilize a reference entity? An example of a reference entity would be a cohort definition while an analysis entity could be a characterization.

  • Administration of deleted entities: will a user have the ability to restore an entity? Do we need further permissions to enable an administrator to restore an entity?

  • Understanding dependencies: if we adopt the idea of a "reference" entity, we'll need to have an endpoint to see what "analysis" entities use it. This would include the status (deleted/active) of the analysis.

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First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
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  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
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Research direction

No files, tests, or entry points are named. Review the v3.0 discussion and map the implications of soft deletion, aging and cleanup, restoration permissions, and dependency visibility; done requires a decided design for these behaviors and any required endpoint.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
java
Domain
backend-api-design
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

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