Should I delete or disable a person record?
As ever it's a balance.
Deleting a Person record
By deleting a person record, your data set is clean and you can of course always re-add later. By deleting the DoorFlow person, all direct and related data is removed.
Deleting a person record includes a person's credentials and passes. In the case of passes, deleting a person means that the wallet pass becomes orphaned. Only the wallet owner can remove a pass from their wallet - it can't be done remotely.
Hard and soft deleting
When a record is deleted (in the UI or by API call), it's soft deleted. Two weeks after soft deletion, a record is hard deleted permanently and cannot be undone.
DoorFlow employs soft deletion as a failsafe. We've learned that integrations can sometimes not work as expected for whatever reason. Soft deleting prevents valuable meta data being easily lost forever.
Disabling a Person record
By disabling a person record you are retaining a number of meta data that might be useful both to the admins but also to the card holder/person.
- Attendance history
- Credential details (card, pin etc)
- Digital wallet passes
- Manually updated details like photo (although you can also add photos via the API)
- Historical changes to a person's record
Some thoughts on credentials & digital passes
Sometimes the physical card/keyfob doesn't get returned when a person leaves. By disabling a person record rather than deleting it, the original card/keyfob can be used again should they return - the person record is simply re-enabled.
This also applies to wallet passes. The pass can continue to reside in the digital wallet (great brand advertising!), but because it's not active it won't work. Should the person return, this can be automatically be re-enabled without the pass needing to be re-issued and downloaded. This ensures the best experience for your valued end user.