Delete signals can be pretty useful sometimes but can be confusing to use. In this article I’ll show you how to use a delete signal in a process. Usually when you use a signal of any kind you’d want to read what is causing the signal (in this case, the record being deleted). The problem with the delete signal is that unless you change some properties of the signal the record will already be deleted before you can read it.

When using any signal there is a checkbox called “Run following elements in the background“.

When using a delete signal you will need to make sure you always have that unchecked. What this checkbox means is when it’s running in the background (when the checkbox is checked) the “thing” (add, edit, delete) happens and triggers your process to run – but not necessarily at the same time. This is a problem with the delete signal because before you can read or do anything with your record it will already be deleted. So having this unchecked means that your process runs as a part of the “thing” that is happening, so for a delete signal the record won’t get deleted until the process is finished running and you’ll be able to read the record being deleted.