Recycle Bin

You can move unwanted entities or entity folders to the Recycle Bin, and restore them to their original locations whenever you want to reuse them.

In this topic:

Recycle Bin overview

The Recycle Bin serves as a transfer station to keep your workspace clean and organized. You can store your unwanted items there and restore them whenever you want to work on them.

Items moved to the Recycle Bin folder are not deleted and are still accessible from the entity tree.

When an entity or entity folder is moved to the Recycle Bin, it remains in the Recycle Bin until you delete it or empty the Recycle Bin.

Availability of the Recycle Bin

The Recycle Bin is available for the Test Plan and Test Lab modules.

About the Recycle Bin folder

Consider the following when working with the Recycle Bin:

• The Recycle Bin folder is always on the top level of the entity tree, under the Unattached folder.

• You cannot delete the Recycle Bin folder.

• You cannot change the properties of the Recycle Bin folder, including the folder name, description, and attachments.

  Note: If you already have a folder named Recycle Bin, you can still keep it and ALM creates a new folder named Recycle Bin_<number> for this feature.

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Prerequisite

To move items to the Recycle Bin or restore items from the Recycle Bin, you should have the Recycle and Restore permission.

User groups that have the delete permission are by default granted the Recycle and Restore permission.

For details, see Manage user groups and permissions.

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Move an item to Recycle Bin

You can move one or multiple entities, or one or multiple entity folders to the Recycle Bin.

To move items to the Recycle Bin folder:

1. From the entity tree, select either the target entities or the target entity folders.

   You cannot select both entities and entity folders at the same time.

   Version Control:

   • If an entity is checked out by others, you cannot move it to the Recycle Bin.

   • If an entity folder contains entities that are checked out by others, you can still move the entity folder to the Recycle Bin.

2. Right-click any of the selected items and select Move to Recycle Bin.

   The items are moved to the Recycle Bin folder.

   If you are moving entity folders, the folder hierarchies are kept in the Recycle Bin folder.

   Note: If an item's name is identical to an existing item in the Recycle Bin, the newly moved item is renamed with the Renamed_<number> suffix. The number starts with 1 and increases as more items with the same name are moved to the bin.

For items moved to the Recycle Bin, you can update them as long as you do not change the current tree structure in the Recycle Bin. For example:

• You can edit the item details and rename an item.

• You can copy/paste items from the Recycle Bin to other folders.

• You cannot create or move items in the Recycle Bin.

• You cannot copy/paste items within the Recycle Bin or copy items from other folders to the Recycle Bin.

• You cannot cut/paste items from the Recycle Bin to other folders.

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Restore an item

You can work on an item in the Recycle Bin after it is restored. After you restore an item, the item is moved back to its original parent folder where it was moved from.

You can restore one or multiple entities or entity folders. Only entities and entity folders that are direct children of the Recycle Bin folder can be restored.

To restore an item in the Recycle Bin:

1. From the entity tree, select the target entities or target entity folders.

   You cannot select entities and entity folders at the same time.

   Version Control:

   • If an entity is checked out by others, you cannot move it to the Recycle Bin.

   • If an entity folder contains entities that are checked out by others, you can still restore the entity folder.

2. Right-click any of the selected items and select Restore.

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Empty the Recycle Bin

When you empty the Recycle Bin, all items in the folder are permanently deleted.

Prerequisite:

You should have the delete permission to empty the Recycle Bin.

To empty the Recycle Bin:

From the entity tree, right-click the Recycle Bin folder and select Delete.

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Auditing for Recycle Bin

When an item is moved to the Recycle Bin or is restored, the AUDIT_LOG database table records:

• ID of the item.

• Who moved the item to the Recycle Bin and who restored it.

• When the moving and restoring happened.

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See also:

• ALM auditing