Why should you care?

ShopNest must retain order and customer history for tax audits — soft delete hides catalog items while preserving referential integrity.

See it live — copy this example

Paste into a .NET project with EF Core packages, then run with LocalDB/SQL Server (dotnet ef / dotnet run).

public class Product
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; } = "";
    public bool IsDeleted { get; set; }
    public DateTime? DeletedAt { get; set; }
}

// DbContext:
modelBuilder.Entity<Product>().HasQueryFilter(p => !p.IsDeleted);

// "Delete":
var p = await _context.Products.FindAsync(id);
p!.IsDeleted = true;
p.DeletedAt = DateTime.UtcNow;
await _context.SaveChangesAsync();

What happened?

• HasQueryFilter adds WHERE IsDeleted = 0 to every query on Product.
• Setting flags performs logical delete without breaking FK references from old orders.

Practice next

1. Add IsDeleted and DeletedAt to Product.
2. Configure HasQueryFilter and migrate.
3. Soft-delete a product and confirm normal queries omit it.
4. Add filtered unique index on Sku where IsDeleted = 0.
5. build restore by clearing IsDeleted and DeletedAt.

Remember

Soft delete uses flags instead of DELETE. HasQueryFilter hides deleted rows globally. IgnoreQueryFilters bypasses filter intentionally.

ShopNest catalog retirement

Discontinued product soft-deleted but old OrderItems still reference it for invoice reprints.

Outcome: GST audit trail intact; storefront stops showing the listing.