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Archive ​

  • Who maintains the package – Jam

What is this package? ​

Archive is an easy way to add an archive mechanism to your Meteor app. When a document is archived, it's removed from its original collection and placed in an archive collection so that it can be restored if needed. Its key features are:

  • Zero config needed (though you can customize)
  • Isomorphic so that it works with Optimistic UI
  • Automatically overrides removeAsync to perform an archive (can be turned off)
  • Explicitly archive with archiveAsync collection method (optional)
  • Restore archived docs with restoreAsync collection method
  • Optionally exclude specific collections
  • Compatible with Meteor 3.0.2+

Note: Alternative to archive is soft deletion. You can use jam:soft-delete package for that. Be sure to compare those two approaches to pick the solution best suited for your application.

How to download it? ​

Add the package to your app

bash
meteor add jam:archive

Sources ​

How to use it? ​

Create your Archives collection ​

Create an Archives collection in your app just as you would any other collection.

js
const Archives = new Mongo.Collection('archives');

Documents in the Archives collection will have this shape:

js
{
  _id, // auto-generated by Meteor as with other collection _ids
  _collection, // the name of the collection, e.g. 'todos', that the doc belonged to originally
  archivedAt, // the timestamp when the document was removed from its original collection and inserted into the archive
  id, // the original doc _id renamed to prevent conflict with the auto-generated one above. when restored, it will be renamed back to _id automatically by this package
  /*
  ...rest of original doc
  */
}

Deleting permanently ​

By default, this package overrides the removeAsync collection method so that it archives the document(s) rather that removing them from the database. To delete permanently, pass in the option forever: true, e.g.:

js
Collection.removeAsync(/* your filter */, { forever: true })

If you prefer, you can prevent overriding the removeAsync by setting overrideRemove: false. See Configuring for more details.

Explicitly archiving ​

If you prefer, you can explicity use archiveAsync, e.g.:

js
Collection.archiveAsync(/* your filter */)

Restoring a document ​

To restore an archived document, use restoreAsync, e.g.:

js
Collection.restoreAsync(/* your filter */)

Configuring (optional) ​

If you like the defaults, then you won't need to configure anything. But there is some flexibility in how you use this package.

Here are the global defaults:

js
const config = {
  name: 'archives', // if your Archives collection uses a different name, you'll want to change this
  overrideRemove: true, // overrides the Collection.removeAsync method to make it an archive instead
  exclude: ['roles', 'role-assignment'] // exclude specific collections from using archive so that when they are removed, the are permanently removed from the db. defaults to excluding the collections created by the meteor roles package
};

To change the global defaults, use:

js
// put this in a file that's imported on both the client and server
import { Archive } from 'meteor/jam:archive';

Archive.configure({
  // ... change the defaults here ... //
});