Node Archive

When a node is deleted it is gone forever. How terrifying!

This module replaces this default behavior with an archiving system so that instead of being deleted nodes are “archived” and can later be “restored”.

This module was developed for the Government of British Columbia’s public service intranet known as @Work. FOI and data retention policies demand that anything posted to this website should be accessible in the future.

Note that this module does not and cannot prevent node deletions entirely. An admin can still find ways to delete nodes. What this module does is over-write the behavior of node/%/delete as well as the default node edit buttons. For administrators, the content management page at admin/content/node has been over-written to allow for filtering of archived nodes and archiving and restoring bulk operations.

Additionally, views support is included for the ability to list archived nodes and conduct actions with VBO.

NOTES
• Nodes are automatically unpublished when archived.
• Permissions can be granted to view archived nodes and to restore them. The ability to archive a node is extended from the delete permission since the operation is done at node/%/delete.
• Uses node_access to grant access on archived nodes.

ADDITIONAL FEATURES
• The terms “archive”, “archived”, “restore” and “restored” can be customized.
• Node revisioning can be enforced so all node edits are automatically saved.
• Prevent any node revisions from being deleted.
• When a node is archived options are presented for what to do with any related menu items – they may be left as-is, hidden or deleted.
• When a node is archived you can automatically delete the path alias.
• The above options are available per node but can also be set for all bulk operations.

INSTALLATION
• Install the module as any drupal module.
• Visit permissions to assign “view archived nodes” and “restore archived nodes”.
• Check settings at admin/settings/node-archive.
• If using VBO to manage your content add the archive and restore operations under the “Selected Operations” in your view.

DEVELOPMENT
A hook has been added (hook_node_archive($op, $node)) so that other modules may respond to the $op "archive" and "restore". Note that changes to the $node object are not saved - this is for notification only.