When a document is deleted from Documentum, only the document's metadata is deleted. The content itself (i.e. the object pointed to by the dmr_content object) remains in the content storage area until the IAPI script generated by the dmclean utility is run. If the dmclean utility has not been run, it is still possible to recover the object's content file.

Note: The document's attributes cannot be recovered without going back to a database backup. Below is an outline of a strategy which can be used to do this recovery.


Recovering the Information of the deleted Object

1. The Following DQL will retrieve the object_ids that correspond to the content objects that have been deleted

select r_object_id from dmr_content where any parent_id is null

If you want to retrieve data for a particular client, you can extract the following information to create your DQL:-

a) What was the name of the object? This is the object_name attribute.

b) What format was the document? This is the full_format attribute.

c) What was the date/time of the last checkin? This is the set_time attribute.

d) What was the name of the client machine where the file was last checked in? This is the set_client attribute.


The DQL that will be created in this case according to your search criteria is as follows:-

select r_object_id from dmr_content where any parent_id is null and
set_client = and full_format = and set_time > DATE('')


2. Using the Object Ids recovered the following IAPI needs to be executed to pick up the path and relevant information of the Object under consideration :-

API> apply,c,,GET_PATH
API> next,c,q0
API> get,c,q0,result

This returns the file system path to the object. For example:

/disk2/dm20/data/solar20o/content_storage_01/00000065/80/00/14/07


How to restore the Document

To be able to restore the document back to its original location, you will need to firstly create a document object of the deleted type using the IAPI :

Creating a new dm_document object using IAPI
API> create,c,dm_document
0900006580005a65.


Setting the name of the Deleted object
API> set,c,,object_name
SET> Restored Document
OK

Linking the deleted file to the newly created object
API> setfile,c,,/disk2/dm20/data/solar20o/content_storage_01/000000
65/80/00/14/07,
OK

Linking the object to a directory in the Cabinets where the file will be restored
API> link,c,,/Temp
OK

Saving the file
API> save,c,

This will restore the deleted document at the location /Temp with the name Restored Document