Modify > Delete

This feature is available from the Modify Menu for all editable assets. It completely deletes any statements that involve the asset, and also some depending statements. In particular, it will delete also delete any depending blank nodes and, for classes and node shapes, also delete the property declarations.

Hint

You may always want to press the Preview button before deleting an asset. If you accidentally delete an asset that you really wanted to keep, you can try to restore it from the Change History Panel or the Undo Button (if it just happened).

You can delete assets directly in an asset collection or you can start a workflow and delete in the workflow of the collection.

For Taxonomy Concepts only, in addition to Delete, there is an option to Modify > Delete with descendants. This deletes an entire tree starting with the selected concept.

Since asset collections in EDG can include each other by reference, some care needs to be taken when deleting assets. Delete operation only deletes references to the deleted asset that exist in your current asset collection. Consider the following scenario:

  • Taxonomy 1 defines Concept A

  • Taxonomy 1 also defines Concept B making it a child of Concept A

  • Taxonomy 2 includes Taxonomy 1

  • Taxonomy 2 defines Concept C making it a child of Concept A

  • You go to Taxonomy 1 and delete Concept A. Concept B’s reference to A will be removed, but Concept C’s reference to A will stay. Now concept C has a broader relationship to an undefined concept

The Delete dialog therefore has a button that allows you to review any usages in other asset collections before you delete the asset.

In case you still end up with broken references, using the Problems and Suggestions Panel on Taxonomy 2 will report the issue and assist you in removing such references.

Similarly, deleting a class (asset type) from an ontology will not remove class instances (assets of a given type) that may be stored in another asset collection. It will make them members of undefined class. Deleting a property does not delete property values that are held in another asset collection.

Running Problems and Suggestion report will help you identify and fix these issues.

Further, by going to the Settings > Included By you will see all asset collections that include your selected collection. You can then go to them and use References Panel to identify what may be referring to a resource you are planning to delete.

See Also

Further Reading on Modify Menu

Further Reading on TopBraid