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Deleting content node does not delete media/files associated with node #2043

@kspurgin

Description

@kspurgin

Pretty sure this is known/expected behavior, but it is counterintuitive from a user standpoint. Why should the object files and derivatives of deleted objects stick around and clutter up my Islandora if I've deleted the content?

Needs checking/verification: If you delete child objects of a resource (from the Children tab), I assume this also leaves all media/files associated with those children.

Should behavior be changed?

Looks like "Media of" field on media types is a single-value field, so having deletion of a node trigger deletion of that node's media seems like it should currently be safe? (But will become trickier (?) if/when pointing node->media rather than media->node is implemented)

Improvement idea if deletion of media/files cannot/should happen automatically:
When selecting content node(s) for deletion, and clicking to delete, next page presents a list of media for the affected nodes, with checkboxes (and select all/select none functionality) to also trigger the deletion (or not) of media/files

If this is the desired behavior, we need to add something to the documentation about how to delete content fully.1

Footnotes

  1. There is a bit about how you might do this buried in Media > Media Revisions > Using the Media form to replace an existing file does not behave as expected, but I am NOT going to look at that and make an obvious mental connection with what I need to do when I delete content

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