Monitoring Deleted Items

Feature Requests
1

I can see that the updated_since parameter has been added to all relevant endpoints, and that’s awesome. We regularly download our data from FreeAgent for analysis and this parameter helps us keep below the rate limit. However, there doesn’t seem to currently be any way to monitor items that have been deleted.

For instance, when I create an invoice it will show up in the invoice endpoint with the updated_since parameter set to 24 hrs previous. I can then store that invoice in my database. If that invoice is modified, again I can detect that modification and change the record in my database. However, if that invoice is deleted it will not be returned by any endpoint and so will remain in my database incorrectly.

The only way to correct this and remove the deleted invoice is to page through ALL invoices and overwrite the entire database table. We’re now back to the issue of rate limiting.

It would be great for each API endpoint to return record IDs of deleted items with the attribute ‘deleted’ included. Or create an entirely new history endpoint which would return a list of creations, modifications and deletions from a given point in time across all models.

2 Likes
2

Hi Craig,

Thanks very much for your message and your feedback; I completely understand, tracking the deletion of resources in a performant manner is still quite a challenge with our API.

I’ve done my best capture your requirements on our Public Trello board:

You’ll see from the board that we’re slowly moving feature requests from the Ideas column to the Live column.
Could I ask that you add your vote to the Trello card, which should allow you to receive notifications of future updates.

Thanks again for your feedback!

Kind regards,
Dave J

3

For me it says:
Trello card does not exist, or is not public

I completely agree with Craig. Everything he suggested is needed if one wants to move away from doing a full download of everything everytime.

4

Any updates on this request? A “deleted” attribute would be much appreciated.

5

Hey all :wave:t2:

In an attempt to handle feature and improvement requests from developers more efficiently, we’ve taken the public Trello board and moved it internally as part of a new process.

On the request of better visibility over deleted items, this is something that we’ll be aiming to look at next year. It’s not on our development roadmap currently but is certainly something that we’d like to be better at moving forwards.

Thanks for voicing your thoughts Martin and Florian.

Regards

Stu McEwan
Core Services:API Product Manager

6

This should be a priority as there’s no other way we can sync your record to ours efficiently.