Deleting Versions

Publication protects content from ordinary editing, but does not make it permanent. Users with deletion permission can delete both draft and published versions. Other deletion preconditions still apply, including restrictions on deleting a template used by stored instances.

Deleting a version reconnects its successor to the deleted version's predecessor. If there is no surviving predecessor, the successor has no pav:previousVersion property. For example, deleting B from A → B → C leaves A → C. Deleting A from A → B leaves B without a predecessor. This rule applies even when the successor is published: CEDAR maintains the history link without changing the successor's content, identifier, version number, publication status or provenance timestamps.

The surviving versions remain one series:

Deleted Version	Result
The draft	The newest surviving published version becomes latest and can produce another draft.
The newest published version, while a draft exists	The draft remains latest. The next newest surviving published version becomes the current release.
The newest published version, with no draft	The next newest surviving published version becomes latest and can produce another draft.
An older version	The current draft and release remain unchanged; the history links reconnect around the deletion.
The only surviving version	The series has no current artifact.

A series with a draft and no surviving published version shows only its draft. Deleting a version never moves existing instances to another template or replaces definitions embedded in other artifacts. The document and search projections may briefly lag the graph while a failed update is retried; the server records the work so it can resume after a restart.