Give user permissions to delete a document where it is not linked to another document

Question

Good morning, 
 I have a specific situation with permissions and want to see if my proposal to rectify this is possible: 
 We have a certain class of document (not subject to a workflow) that has automatic permissions assigned. The permissions actually prohibit the creator from deleting their own document. The reason is because this document is supposed to be a document that 'supports' different kinds of requests (other document classes). To ensure maximum integrity in the system, we decided that users cannot delete these supporting documents given their importance to 'support' other documents. 
 However, we have instances where users, in confusion or otherwise, upload the same document multiple times. 
 We want to give them power to delete these duplicates or documents that are not linked by a relationship to any existing request. 
 Are there means to specify a condition that IF a 'supporting document' is not linked to any other existing document, that then the creator should be able to delete it? 
 Thank you. 
 Patrick.

Joonas Linkola · Accepted Answer

Could you consider putting the supporting documents in a workflow? It's not possible to specify conditional permissions directly in the object permissions, but I think you should be able to use a workflow to delete the duplicate doc as a workaround. 
 The workflow itself can be simple and you would set a precondition that would prevent moving to the deleting state if there are any linked documents ("Delete duplicate" state has the Delete workflow action selected). The details depend on your vault structure and how exactly are the other documents linked to this supporting doc. You may need to use Managed Properties or some scripting to fill in the property used in the precondition. 
 
 Now a user who has the permission to transition the doc to state "Delete duplicate" can delete via the workflow (if the "Linked docs" property is empty) even though they don't have the delete permission in the object permissions. In the screenshot below they wouldn't be able to delete since there is a doc listed in the "Linked docs" property.

Give user permissions to delete a document where it is not linked to another document

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