Delete questions

Delete questions provides a means of deleting Question and DeskStats records in bulk. By default it can only be used by system administrators. Note that when this utility is used to delete questions and DeskStats they are permanently deleted from the database, so you need to be very sure, before using this utility!

Although individual questions can be deleted using the Reopen screen, and the last individual DeskStats record can be “undone” right in the DeskStats screen, if entered by mistake, Utilities > Delete questions is the only place where DeskStats records and questions can be deleted in bulk.

It is always a good idea to use the Download function of the Statistical reporting screen to save statistics for the period covered by the questions you are about to delete, before performing a bulk delete. This will give you a permanent external historical copy of the statistical information for your RefTracker system as it was before the deletion took place. Once records are deleted using this Delete questions utility, they are gone forever, and future statistical reporting will not include them.

This screen provides five modes of operation:

  • Delete DeskStats by received date range
  • Delete Questions by # range
  • Delete Questions by received date range
  • Delete Questions by closed date range
  • Delete all questions in your system that have a Spam status (“Suspected spam” status is automatically set by RefTracker when a question is suspected of being spam – if the question is not spam, performing any action on the question that changes its status will remove the “Suspected spam” status so that it is not included in the questions selected for deletion by this option)
  • Deletion of DeskStats in bulk

The parameters for deleting DeskStats allow you to select DeskStats for a time period (such as part of a day), and then limit the selected records to just those for a specific Location, or a specific staff member. As long as you leave the Preview questions parameter ticked, the confirmation screen will then give you the ability to select/deselect just certain records from those selected, allowing the deletion of records to be specific down to just a specific record if necessary.

Confirm Deletion DeskStats in bulk

The confirmation page shows all DeskStats recorded during the period (and by the selected staff member or location) with the “Confirm delete” box ticked for each. As shown in the above example, you can untick any number of the stats matching your search criteria, so that only the specific stats that you want to delete, will be deleted – in this case just the first one.

Deletion of Questions in bulk

For each of the different Question deletion mode, appropriate parameters appear:

  • Start and end question numbers- Start and end dates
  • Preview questions – we recommend that, unless you are deleting all questions in your database, you should always leave this parameter ticked so you can be very sure that the correct records are being deleted
  • Retain KB questions – only untick this if you specifically want to remove questions in the KB

Retain open questions – only untick this if you specifically want to remove questions that have not yet been answered (closed or rejected)

When you click on delete, a confirmation screen will always appear before any records are actually deleted.

Exercise

Enter parameters appropriate for some records that you would like to delete (use Search to find candidates for deletion). Click on Delete. Questions will not be deleted without you confirming that this is what you want to do. 

Confirm Deletion of Questions in bulk

When you select records to be deleted, and leave the Preview questions box ticked, then click on Delete, a screen similar to the one above will appear, allowing you to confirm that you want these records deleted, before the system goes ahead and actually deletes them.

The Confirm Delete column allows you to individually de-select, by un-ticking, any particular records that you may have included in error, and do not want deleted.

Some questions are not able to be deleted in their current status, such as primary questions with subsidiary linked questions or internal tasks. They will appear without a tick box. If you want to delete these questions you need to remove the impediment to them being deleted such as by deleting their subsidiary questions.

Be very sure to examine this summary carefully before clicking on Delete questions, as the records that are ticked in the Confirm delete column will be deleted, and gone forever, once you click on Delete questions.

A screen confirming the number of records deleted will then be displayed.

Exercise

Only click on Confirm delete if you are absolutely sure that you want the selected records permanently deleted from the database.

Now we will look at Data export by selecting from System>Batch process menu>Data export/import>Data export.