Should we remove ability to turn on user and bug deletion?

[Benton, Kevin]

I should add that I do not see a user deletion flag as being the same as
a user deleted flag.  Users that are disabled are just that - disabled.
No changes in the system need to be made for disabled users.  Disabled
users don't show up in drop-down lists, however, they can still own bugs
(yuck).  A company's security policy may require that a user is disabled
while they're on vacation or some other kind of leave of absence.

---
Kevin Benton
Perl/Bugzilla Developer
Advanced Micro Devices
 
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: developers-owner at bugzilla.org
[mailto:developers-owner at bugzilla.org]
> On Behalf Of Benton, Kevin
> Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 1:19 PM
> To: developers at bugzilla.org
> Subject: Re: Should we remove ability to turn on user and bug
deletion?
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: developers-owner at bugzilla.org
> [mailto:developers-owner at bugzilla.org]
> > On Behalf Of Marc Schumann
> > Sent: Monday, April 04, 2005 11:05 AM
> > To: developers at bugzilla.org
> > Subject: Re: Should we remove ability to turn on user and bug
> deletion?
> >
> > On Apr 4, 2005 10:54 AM, Gervase Markham <gerv at mozilla.org> wrote:
> > > The newsgroups are filled with people who have turned on user and
> bug
> > > deletion, despite the warnings, and got into difficulty. I say we
> should
> > > remove the Params, and tell people it's not supported, until such
> time
> > > as someone implements it properly.
> > >
> > > What do you think?
> >
> > User deletion has improved a lot with bug 119485. On user deletion,
> > the admin is presented with individual, detailed warnings. Short of
> > deleting bugs, related entities are deleted along with the user.
> > Leaving the bugs undeleted will cause db inconsistency when
overriding
> > the corresponding warning. Maybe it's an idea to go for the
> > never-inconsistencies way, but I don't think this warrants to make
> > user deletion impossible.
> 
> As a Bugzilla Administrator, it seems like a lot of work at this point
> to perform deletions of users if that user has had much activity in
the
> system at all.  If the user is an assigned-to person, has commented on
> bugs, has created activity log entries, attachments, etc., there's a
lot
> to deleting that user without creating referential problems.  On the
> other hand, if we have a "deleted" flag, it would be relatively easy
to
> handle clean-up because the user should no longer have access to the
web
> or email interfaces, and there's no need to handle activity log
entries
> in a special manner because they're still stored in the database.  In
> the event a system admin decides they made a mistake, no data has been
> lost, they can simply turn the user back on.  In my mind, a user
flagged
> as deleted would no longer show up in user lists, hyperlinks to them
> would be disabled, and the only way to gain access to those users
would
> be to request to include a listing of deleted users from the user
> administration menu, and of course, from MySQL directly.
> 
> As a Bugzilla programmer, it makes a lot of sense to me to give the
> ability to "permanently and completely disable a user" without having
to
> remove them from the DB.  I believe it would be extremely rare when
> administrators would actually want to physically remove "old users"
from
> the system short of running out of disk space or the user table gets
> "too big."  In those cases, I think we need to come up with a way to
set
> up a default user that all entries can be reassigned to in the event
> that a user deletion is required. If not a default user, then I feel
we
> should give the person performing the deletion the opportunity to pick
a
> person or assign the bugs back to the person doing the deletion.   In
> those cases, a set of updates could be written to update all the user
id
> foreign keys changing any instance of the user being deleted to the
> appropriate user id.  By doing this, we haven't thrown out any
> historical information, and we can now completely remove the user from
> the system without breaking any references.  It also makes querying
the
> database relatively easy, giving the administrator immediate access to
> any bugs that need to be reassigned after the user has been removed.
> 
> Another benefit of this auto-reassignment method is that it makes it
> easier to back-out any changes made by a real user deletion.  All the
> changes made to bugs and other foreign keys containing that user's id
> can be reverted because the listing of those changes should be
available
> in a query.
> 
> ---
> Kevin Benton
> Perl/Bugzilla Developer
> Advanced Micro Devices
> 
> The opinions stated in this communication do not necessarily reflect
the
> view of Advanced Micro Devices and have not been reviewed by
management.
> This communication may contain sensitive and/or confidential and/or
> proprietary information.  Distribution of such information is strictly
> prohibited without prior consent of Advanced Micro Devices.  This
> communication is for the intended recipient(s) only.  If you have
> received this communication in error, please notify the sender, then
> destroy any remaining copies of this communication.
> 
> 
> 
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