Deleting a line item renders promoted tweet inaccessible for direct deletion

[creztoe]

After deleting a line item, it is not possible to directly delete a child promoted tweet. An error will be returned stating the resource is not found. When querying for the promoted tweet, I have to use the flag ‘with_deleted’ to retrieve a result, however the results actually show ‘deleted: False’ for the promoted tweet.

What is the expected behavior of deletions (line items / promoted tweets)? Is it not possible to access a promoted tweet from a deleted line item, even though it is still shown in the ads manager (and in ‘running’ state)?? Also, attempting to pause these ads (within a deleted ad group) via the ads manager leads to a UI error stating ‘Ad groups need at least one tweet’.

Calls used to trigger this behavior.

https://gist.github.com/cgsimmons/4d18171e194b13d266381a9341fc01a0

[juanshishido]

Thanks for providing these details, @creztoe. Our team will take a closer look to determine what’s going on. We’ll plan to get back with you in the next few days.

[creztoe]

@juanshishido any status update for this issue?

[imit8me]

Hey @creztoe

Apologies for the delay in response. Promoted Tweets are actually just associations between a Tweet and a Line Item. Deleting the Line Item results in this association being broken, making the Promoted Tweet un-retrievable.

In terms of the issue, can you let us know the use case where this behavior is causing any confusions/issues?

Thanks!

[creztoe]

Thanks for the response, @imit8me. Here are the points of confusion (regarding a promoted tweet belonging to a DELETED line item):

1. From the original post ‘When querying for the promoted tweet, I have to use the flag ‘with_deleted’ to retrieve a result, however the results actually show ‘deleted: False’ for the promoted tweet.’ Is this expected behavior?
2. The promoted tweet is shown as ‘running’ from the ads manager, even though, as you say, the connection no longer exists. This is confusing for users of our system if they view the ads on your platform after deleting a line item.
3. Attempting to pause the ads leads to the validation error described above.

So essentially, customers can be confused because the ads manager does not correctly display the current state of the ad (promoted tweet) when a line item is deleted.

[imit8me]

Hey @creztoe

Thats an astute observation, and to address your specific questions:

1. Ideally no, these entities should reflect their actual state. Deleting a Line Item effectively makes the child Promoted Tweets un-servable however the deleted flag does not reflect this.
2. Agreed with you around the confusion
3. The validation error is due to the fact that once the Line Item is deleted, any associated Promoted Tweets are un-servable and inaccessible.

To summarize, we understand that this is a pain point, and we’ve escalated this to the relevant teams internally. In the meantime, I would suggest doing bottom-up deletes, i.e., if trying to delete a Line Item, first delete all associated Promoted Tweets. Similarly for Campaigns, the flow should be Promoted Tweet -> Line Items -> Campaigns.

Appreciate your patience on the issue while we try to get a permanent fix in place.

Thanks!

[majoritasdev]

@imit8me: I also vote for this fix to be done. I totally agree with @creztoe!

[imit8me]

Sounds good, all! We’ve raised the issue internally and will get back to you once we’ve got more details!

[creztoe]

Great, this gives me all the info I need for now. Thanks for the help!