DELETE — Soft Delete

Use DELETE to remove the current version of a resource while preserving its history. Couchbase FHIR CE performs a soft delete:

• The active document is removed from its resource collection (e.g., Resources.Patient).
• The most recent active state is already in Resources.Versions (from prior PUT/PATCH).
• A tombstone is written to Resources.Tombstones with:
  • resourceType, id
  • lastVersionId
  • deletedAt, deletedBy
  • reason

Effect:

• Normal READ (GET /…/Patient/100) no longer returns the resource.
• History (_history) remains available.
• Resource is excluded from search results.

Beta Note

Hard purge (cascading, permanent delete) is not implemented.

Example

Lets go through this, step by step

First, lets get the doc to make sure

curl 'http://localhost/fhir/acme/Patient/100'
{"resourceType":"Patient","id":"100","meta":{"versionId":"2","lastUpdated":"2025-10-09T17:51:51.025+00:00","tag":[{"system":"http://couchbase.fhir.com/fhir/custom-tags","code":"updated-by","display":"user:anonymous"}]},"name":[{"use":"official","family":"Doe","given":["John"]}],"gender":"male","birthDate":"1990-01-01","deceasedDateTime":"2022-07-22"}

Lets delete

curl --request DELETE 'http://localhost/fhir/acme/Patient/100' \
--data ''

Lets try and get back Patient/100

curl 'http://localhost/fhir/acme/Patient/100'

{"resourceType":"OperationOutcome","issue":[{"severity":"error","code":"processing","diagnostics":"HAPI-0389: Failed to call access method: java.lang.RuntimeException: com.couchbase.client.core.error.DocumentNotFoundException: Document with the given id not found {\"completed\":true,\"coreId\":\"0x3ff292c800000001\",\"idempotent\":true,\"lastChannelId\":\"3FF292C800000001/00000000E47D4954\",\"lastDispatchedFrom\":\"172.19.0.2:49880\",\"lastDispatchedTo\":\"host.docker.internal:11210\",\"requestId\":16705,\"requestType\":\"GetRequest\",\"retried\":0,\"service\":{\"bucket\":\"acme\",\"collection\":\"Patient\",\"documentId\":\"Patient/100\",\"errorCode\":{\"description\":\"Not Found\",\"name\":\"KEY_ENOENT\"},\"opaque\":\"0x3d3a\",\"scope\":\"Resources\",\"type\":\"kv\",\"vbucket\":178},\"status\":\"NOT_FOUND\",\"timeoutMs\":10000,\"timings\":{\"dispatchMicros\":1656,\"totalDispatchMicros\":1656,\"totalServerMicros\":0,\"totalMicros\":2207,\"serverMicros\":0}}"}]}

From CB Console, lets first check out this Patient:

In Patient Collection:

select * from acme.Resources.Patient where resourceType = "Patient" and id = "100" ;

Result: Empty

In Versions Collection:

select * from acme.Resources.Versions where resourceType = "Patient" and id = "100" ;

Result: 2 Versions

[
  {
    "Versions": {
      "birthDate": "1990-01-01",
      "deceasedDateTime": "2022-07-22",
      "gender": "male",
      "id": "100",
      "meta": {
        "lastUpdated": "2025-10-09T17:51:51.025+00:00",
        "tag": [
          {
            "code": "updated-by",
            "display": "user:anonymous",
            "system": "http://couchbase.fhir.com/fhir/custom-tags"
          }
        ],
        "versionId": "2"
      },
      "name": [
        {
          "family": "Doe",
          "given": ["John"],
          "use": "official"
        }
      ],
      "resourceType": "Patient"
    }
  },
  {
    "Versions": {
      "birthDate": "1990-01-01",
      "gender": "male",
      "id": "100",
      "meta": {
        "lastUpdated": "2025-10-09T17:41:14.645+00:00",
        "tag": [
          {
            "code": "created-by",
            "display": "user:anonymous",
            "system": "http://couchbase.fhir.com/fhir/custom-tags"
          }
        ],
        "versionId": "1"
      },
      "name": [
        {
          "family": "Doe",
          "given": ["John"],
          "use": "official"
        }
      ],
      "resourceType": "Patient"
    }
  }
]

In Tombstones Collection

select * from acme.Resources.Tombstones where resourceType = "Patient" and id = "100" ;

[
  {
    "Tombstones": {
      "deletedAt": "2025-10-09T18:10:05.143378822Z",
      "deletedBy": "user:anonymous",
      "id": "100",
      "lastVersionId": "2",
      "reason": "user-request",
      "resourceType": "Patient",
      "restorable": true
    }
  }
]

Lets try and now PUT a Patient with the same id

curl --request PUT 'http://localhost/fhir/acme/Patient/100' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data '{
  "resourceType": "Patient",
  "id": "100",
  "name": [
    {
      "use": "official",
      "family": "Doe",
      "given": ["Jane"]
    }
  ],
  "gender": "female",
  "birthDate": "1990-01-01"
}'

{"resourceType":"OperationOutcome","issue":[{"severity":"error","code":"processing","diagnostics":"Failed to update resource: PUT operation failed: Transaction has failed with cause 'ca.uhn.fhir.rest.server.exceptions.ResourceVersionConflictException: Resource ID 100 was previously deleted and cannot be reused. Please choose a new ID.'"}]}%

Summary

• DELETE performs a soft delete: removes active doc, preserves versions, writes a tombstone.
• Reads fail; history remains.
• Search excludes deleted resources.
• ID re-use is blocked by policy (beta).
• Hard purge not yet supported.