Deleted Items in API

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Ailish McCarthy

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Jun 7, 2022, 9:18:07 AM6/7/22
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Hi - just confirming that there is no way to retrieve deleted items from  the  Atom  API, is this correct?  Or have I missed something?

Thanks, 
Ailish

Dan Gillean

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Jun 8, 2022, 8:29:28 AM6/8/22
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Hi Ailish, 

Unfortunately, AtoM does not have any mechanism to preserve records that have already been deleted. 

We use a MySQL relational database for metadata storage - typically, unless your database design specifically includes some additional tables for data backup, these types of database only store information about the current state of the data, not the past. Unless you have made database backups outside of AtoM, once you delete something it's gone - this is one of the reasons why AtoM prompts you to confirm when deleting a record. 

Your best option to recover deleted data is to load a database backup, if your AtoM maintainers have been taking regular backup snapshots (something we always recommend for a production environment!). If you have a database backup, it can be loaded as described in our documentation in the following locations:
If you don't have any backups of the database, then unfortunately the API endpoints will not help you recover deleted data. 

Regards, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory
he / him


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Paulo Cesar Gestao da informacao

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Jun 8, 2022, 10:03:18 AM6/8/22
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Como faço para INSTALAR O ATOM E ARQUIVEMÁTICA NO WINDOWS 10 VIA MAQUINA VIRTUAL?
Profº. Paulo César 
Cargo - Coordenador do Arquivo Publico Municipal (SISMARQCASTANHAL)
Portaria - 2650 -18/2017
Setor de Atuação - Prefeitura Municipal/Administração
Contato - 91984010510 Claro / 91988066636 Oi/Zap



Ailish McCarthy

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Jun 8, 2022, 10:25:35 AM6/8/22
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Hi @Dan - thanks for the response!

I think i should rephrase the question slightly. 

I'm not necessarily looking to recover deleted items, but rather to be notified of updates to the system (i.e. deletes, updates, additions) in order to update an external index. I imagine the same answer applies regarding storing deleted items and I'd need to do a full refresh of the index, but if there's a way of extracting updates from the API I'd be interested to know more.

Thanks

Ailish McCarthy

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Jun 9, 2022, 10:38:18 AM6/9/22
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Also - is there a way to find out the date and time of the most recent update to a record via the API?

Dan Gillean

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Jun 10, 2022, 8:54:47 AM6/10/22
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Hi Paulo, 

For a development environment set up on a local computer, you can use AtoM's Vagrant box - see: 

AtoM is intended to be installed on a server for production use. If you have a Windows-based server, then you can use a production-ready virtualization solution install the Ubuntu 18.04 ISO - you should be able to find many guides online about how to do this based on your virtualization solution. 

Once installed, you can then follow AtoM's normal installation instructions inside your Ubuntu VM. 

The process will be similar for Archivematica - you can always ask for further guidance on the Archivematica User Forum

Good luck! 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory
he / him

Dan Gillean

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Jun 10, 2022, 8:55:55 AM6/10/22
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Hi Ailish, 

Thanks for clarifying. I don't believe AtoM's API endpoints currently support anything like this, but I will confirm with our developers and get back to you. 

Cheers, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory
he / him

Ailish McCarthy

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Jun 10, 2022, 9:22:52 AM6/10/22
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Thanks Dan appreciate it!

Dan Gillean

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Jun 13, 2022, 12:27:39 PM6/13/22
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Hi Ailish, 

So, I've confirmed that currently the API does not offer methods to notify you of changes. However, if you're willing to find workarounds or else make some local code changes, then it may be possible to get at least some of your needs met regardless. Some pieces that might help: 

AtoM does have a basic audit log functionality for archival descriptions. This is tracked and stored in the database, using the date-time stamps. See: 
There's also the description updates module, which allows administrators to search for records based on date ranges of creation or modification. When the description change log has been enabled, it also includes a User filter. See: 
When the audit log is not enabled, this functionality uses the Elasticsearch index to provide results - AtoM uses ES version 5.6 in the 2.6 release. Elasticsearch also includes its own API that might help you get the information you need. Consult the ES 5.6 documentation for more information.

The API itself supports most parameters available for searching in the user interface, including sorting by last modification date. Right now the response does not include actual date or time stamps, but it could likely be modified to include this.

Hopefully at least some of these pieces might help you create a strategy to get the information you need. 

Cheers,  

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory
he / him

Ailish McCarthy

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Jun 15, 2022, 12:17:18 PM6/15/22
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Thanks for this Dan! Really appreciate the follow-up. I just have one question regarding whether this information would be available via the 'browse information objects' endpoint or would it be limited to individual archival descriptions via 'read information object'?

Best
Ailish

Dan Gillean

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Jun 16, 2022, 10:53:19 AM6/16/22
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Hi Ailish, 

The sort option is available in the browse information objects endpoint - see: 
The rest of the things I described are other AtoM functionalities that, with some further investigation, creative workarounds, and/or code changes, may help you find a path forward - but they are not supported by the API currently. 

Cheers, 

Dan Gillean, MAS, MLIS
AtoM Program Manager
Artefactual Systems, Inc.
604-527-2056
@accesstomemory
he / him

Ailish McCarthy

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Jun 17, 2022, 5:27:21 AM6/17/22
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Sure thing! Thanks for the help Dan :) 

Ailish

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