internetarchive / internetarchive/openlibrary
Most authors cannot be deleted because of dangling references on editions which cannot be changed
- Dominant language
- Python
- Stars
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- 2d 19h
- Merged PRs (30d)
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Description
Editions hold a copy of the author OLID, which falls out of sync with the work, and cannot be edited via the UI.
- The root cause of this is #2625
Related:
- #3343
- #5664
- #5594
- #8069
Maybe related:
- #1445
- #5664
### Steps to Reproduce
1. Go to https://openlibrary.org/authors/OL3099625A/Delete_duplicate
2. Press "Delete record"
* Actual: `This Author page cannot be deleted as 1 record(s) still reference this id. Please remove or reassign before trying again. Referenced by: ['/books/OL8796829M']`
* Expected: Delete succeeds
### Details
- **Logged in (Y/N)?** Y (admin)
- **Browser type/version?** FF75
- **Operating system?** Win10
- **Environment (prod/dev/local)?** prod
### Proposal & Constraints
### Related files
### Stakeholders
@seabelis
Contributor guide
Research direction
Start by reproducing the failure at the author deletion URL and review issue #2625 alongside the related issues #3343, #5664, #5594, and #8069. Trace how the dangling edition reference is detected and how edition author OLIDs are maintained. Done means the affected author can be deleted without leaving an invalid reference, with the existing reference-safety behavior preserved.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- python
- Domain
- backend, database
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100