EF Core SoftDelete Implement Soft Delete

To implement soft delete in your application, we need to inherit our db context class from SoftDeletes.Core.DbContext.

public class BookStore : SoftDeletes.Core.DbContext
{
    protected override void OnConfiguring(DbContextOptionsBuilder optionsBuilder)
    {
        optionsBuilder.UseSqlServer(@"Data Source=(localdb)\ProjectsV13;Initial Catalog=BookStoreDb;");
    }

    public DbSet<Author> Authors { get; set; }
    public DbSet<Book> Books { get; set; }
}

In entities you want to add soft delete support, implement SoftDeletes.ModelTools.ISoftDelete or ModelExtenstion abstract class that implements ITimestamps and ISoftDelete interfaces.

So let's inherit both Author and Book entities from ModelExtenstion abstract class and implement the abstract methods.

public class Author : ModelExtension
{
    public int AuthorId { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public virtual ICollection<Book> Books { get; set; }

    public override async Task OnSoftDeleteAsync(SoftDeletes.Core.DbContext context, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    {
        var taskList = new List<Task> 
        {
            context.RemoveRangeAsync(Books,cancellationToken)
        };

        await Task.WhenAll(taskList);
    }

    public override void OnSoftDelete(SoftDeletes.Core.DbContext context)
    {
        context.RemoveRange(Books);
    }

    public override async Task LoadRelationsAsync(SoftDeletes.Core.DbContext context, CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    {
        var taskList = new List<Task> 
        {
            context.Entry(this)
                .Collection(a => a.Books)
                .LoadAsync()
        };

        await Task.WhenAll(taskList);
    }

    public override void LoadRelations(SoftDeletes.Core.DbContext context)
    {
        context.Entry(this)
            .Collection(a => a.Books)
            .Load();
    }
}

public class Book : ModelExtension
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Title { get; set; }
    public int NoOfPages { get; set; }
    public int AuthorId { get; set; }
    public Author Author { get; set; }
    public override Task OnSoftDeleteAsync(SoftDeletes.Core.DbContext context,
        CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    {
        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }

    public override void OnSoftDelete(SoftDeletes.Core.DbContext context)
    {
    }

    public override Task LoadRelationsAsync(SoftDeletes.Core.DbContext context,
        CancellationToken cancellationToken = default)
    {
        return Task.CompletedTask;
    }

    public override void LoadRelations(SoftDeletes.Core.DbContext context)
    {
    }
}

It will add column named DeletedAt to your entity so you need to add a migration and update the database tables or delete the database and create a new one.

• In LoadRelationsAsync and LoadRelations methods, load relations you want to delete in soft deleting the entity.
• in OnSoftDeleteAsync and OnSoftDelete methods, delete relations you want to delete in soft deleting the entity.
• For soft deleting an entity use Remove and RemoveAsync methods.
• These methods will soft delete an ISoftDelete implemented entity and force delete an not implemented entity.
• For force deleting any entity use ForceRemove method.

Let's configure the relationship in OnModelCreating method as shown below.

protected override void OnModelCreating(ModelBuilder modelBuilder)
{
    base.OnModelCreating(modelBuilder);

    // For Author
    modelBuilder.Entity<Author>()
        .HasQueryFilter(a => a.DeletedAt == null);

    // For Book
    modelBuilder.Entity<Book>()
        .HasQueryFilter(b => b.DeletedAt == null);
    modelBuilder.Entity<Book>()
        .HasOne(b => b.Author)
        .WithMany(a => a.Books)
        .HasForeignKey(b => b.AuthorId);
}