Use the Deleted Topics Recovery Expander

Every QCLF Category can show a moderator-only Deleted Topics recovery expander. It is intentionally hidden from ordinary users even if their Joomla group happens to have explicit Category ACL rows for individual actions.

The panel combines restore/purge controls with the seven-day automatic retention lifecycle so moderators can see what is recoverable before Cleanup permanently removes it.

Who Can See the Expander

Visibility comes from canManageDeletedTopics(), not from one restore/purge ACL row. The user must be a forum-wide moderator, an administrator/component moderation authority, or an assigned moderator for that Category. This prevents normal posting groups from seeing Deleted Topics (0) merely because explicit ACL rows exist.

Read the Recovery Information

  1. Open a Category where you are an actual moderator.
  2. Expand Deleted Topics (N).
  3. For each row, review the title, deletion time or merge destination, and the “Permanently deletes in …” retention label.
  4. Use Restore only when the Topic is recoverable and you have restore.content.
  5. Use Permanently Delete only with purge.content when immediate irreversible purge is intended.

Seven-Day Retention

QCLF keeps an ordinary soft-deleted Topic for seven days. The Cleanup Scheduled Task calls purgeExpiredTopics(7,100); expired Topics are permanently removed in batches after the cutoff. A moderator with purge authority can permanently delete earlier. Merged Topics cannot be restored because their Messages already moved to the destination Topic.

Current 1.1.27 Display Limit

SOURCE CHECK resolved: the Category expander loads at most the 25 most recently deleted Topics and calculates the number in Deleted Topics (N) from those loaded rows. If more than 25 deleted Topics are retained in one Category, 1.1.27 does not show a full-total count or pagination in this expander.

Community Discussion

Want to compare forum workflows, share practical QCLF tips, or discuss how other Joomla site owners use this feature? Visit the QC Live Forum Community. For private support, bug reports, account-specific entitlement problems, or feature requests, use the QuantaCade support system.