Alfresco: API to Delete a Specific Document Version

Version 2.3 of the Formtek Version Browser for Alfresco 5.1 was released this week.  A new feature in this release is a delete action that allows users to delete specific versions of a document.

The Delete Version action is shown highlighted by the red box in the screenshot shown here:

This same functionality can be accessed programmatically.

Installation of the Version Browser also activates two different APIs for deleting a version: either as a REST webscript service call or by using an Alfresco server-side Javascript.  I'll describe briefly here how that functionality can be accessed.

GET REST Service Call

Versions can be deleted with the following GET REST webscript.

Here the parameters are:

    {item_store_type}/{item_store_id}/{item_id} - The nodeRef of the document (not the specific version)

    {delversion} - The version label of the version being deleted.  Note that a hyphen is used here and not a period to separate the major from the minor part of the version label.

Here is an example that deletes version 1.0 of a document:

http://<server>:<port>/alfresco/s/slingshot/doclib/action/formtek/extensions/version-browser/remove-version/node/workspace/SpacesStore/a6248c1f-b226-4bf3-a5ec-d904a3115e72/1-0

Running this in a browser will return with the following result:

Javascript API call

You can also use a Formtek-defined Javascript method in your server-side Javascript programming for webscripts and rules to delete a version.

The method can be called as follows:

        ftkver.delete(nodeRef, verlabel);

    nodeRef = String with the nodeRef id of the main document

    verlabel = String with the version label

This method returns a boolean that is true when the version is successfully deleted.

Note again that this functionality is not a standard Alfresco capability and available only with the Formtek Version Browser.