The purge process will remove any sections or content in an inactive state from the T4 database. Once the content is purged, it cannot be recovered.
About the Purge Process
We have two processes in place that will permanently remove deleted (inactive) content from the system. At the beginning of the month we run a process that will purge any content that has been in an inactive state for longer than 30 days. We have another process that runs more frequently, and will purge any inactive content that's in a branch named "T4 Purge". That's a special-purpose section, used only as a container for inactive sections and content. If you've deleted content and are certain that you will not need it in the future, you can get that out of your way by creating a pending section in your site named T4 Purge and move your deleted content there. When we purge content from T4 Purge sections, we don't wait 30 days before doing so. If you moved deleted content into T4 Purge, it will be removed from the system as soon as the next T4 Purge process is run.
More about the T4 Purge section
The content and sections within a T4 Purge section will need to be in an Inactive state in order to actually get purged. Just moving approved or pending content into the T4 Purge section doesn't automatically make the content eligible to be purged - it needs to be deleted first.
| All sections and content are eligible to be purged | Some content won't be purged |
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In the example on the left, the T4 Purge section will be cleared. There are 23 deleted content items in the T4 Purge section, and the Support SCU section has been set to Inactive (indicated by red text). Even though its 11 content items are pending, the section is set to Inactive and it's a child section of T4 Purge, so the section and its content items will be cleared with the T4 Purge process runs.
The second example would have mixed results. The two OMC testing and draft sections are still active, and the content with the text section is not deleted. Although these are child sections of T4 Purge, the content or sections still need to be set to inactive in order to be included in the purge process.
Key points
- Purged content and sections are permanently removed from TerminalFour
- Deleted (inactive) content and sections are eligible to be purged from TerminalFour
- All content in an inactive state for 30 days or longer is included in the monthly purge process
- All content and sections in an inactive state and located in a section name "T4 Purge" will be purged more frequently, and without the 30 day waiting period.