You can use retention settings to achieve your object retention goal.
Your object retention goal | Applicable class retention setting (default retention period) | Applicable object retention setting |
---|---|---|
You do not want retention applied to the object. The object can be deleted at any time. | None | None |
You want the object retained until a specific date. The object can be deleted after the retention date is reached. | Period - You provide a retention period in seconds, hours, days, weeks, months, or years. | Expiration - You provide a retention date and time value. |
You do not have a specific retention date available but would like the object retained indefinitely. This option preserves the object so that you can enter a specific retention date at a later date. | Indefinite | Indefinite |
You want the object to be permanently retained. The object is never deleted. | Permanent | Permanent |
Retention for a class is defined in terms of a default retention period. When you set the default retention period to Period, you can specify the retention period as a fixed amount of time in hours, days, weeks, or years.
Retention for an object is defined in terms of a retention setting. When you set the retention setting to Expiration, the object retention setting has an associated date and time value.
When you create an object, you can define a retention setting for the object. If you do not specify a retention setting, the retention for the object defaults to the retention period that is defined for the class.
If you create an object without specifying a retention setting and you set the retention of the associated class to the Indefinite retention setting, the object is also assigned an Indefinite retention setting.