parse-community / parse-community/parse-server

Remove unused internal field _tombstone

Open
#10,178 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

type:feature
Dominant language
JavaScript
Stars
21.4k
Forks
4.8k
Avg merge
7h 45m
Merged PRs (30d)
11

Description

Summary

The internal field _tombstone is referenced in two places in the codebase but is not used by any feature or logic:

  • src/Controllers/DatabaseController.js — listed in specialMasterQueryKeys
  • src/Adapters/Storage/Mongo/MongoTransform.js — handled in a case statement

No code in Parse Server reads, writes, or queries this field. It appears to be a leftover from a planned or removed soft-delete feature that was never fully implemented.

Proposal

Remove _tombstone from both locations to reduce dead code.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reading the _tombstone entries in src/Controllers/DatabaseController.js and src/Adapters/Storage/Mongo/MongoTransform.js. Remove the field from specialMasterQueryKeys and the corresponding case statement, then run the relevant Parse Server tests to confirm the existing database and storage behavior remains intact.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
javascript, node.js
Domain
backend, database
Issue type
Refactor
Difficulty
2/5
Estimated time
1-3 hours
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Clearly specified
Newbie friendliness
56/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.