We'd like to have a consistent and safe way for study designers (almost always the implementers, so people with the DEVELOPER role) to delete and remove things as they set up a study. Often are deletes really remove things from the database and are only accessible to administrators for test clean-up. Here's how we'll support both through our rest API:=

class Apple

boolean deleted - this flag should be part of the public API of the object.

GET /apples?includeDeleted=boolean

• by default, should not include deleted apples
• because deleted apples may be referenced elsewhere, UIs may still need them for labels, etc., so include a flag to return deleted apples, too

GET /apples/id

• always return this item regardless of deletion status so references do not break

POST /apples

• should not be able to create an apple in a deleted state (deleted always = false)

POST /apples/id

• should be able change the deleted flag if you can update the object

DELETE /apples/id or DELETE /apples?id=x

• sets deleted = false and that's it. This is an option for both developers and administrators

DELETE /applies/id?physical=true or DELETE /apples?id=x&physical=true

• physically removes item from database if and only if the caller is an administrator (otherwise falls back to a logical delete)