The following code was copied from my Twitter home page, it shows how to delete a twitter entry on the server.

raw HTML code with embedded JavaScript code.

<a href="/status/destroy/719423092" onclick="if (confirm('Sure you want to delete this update? There is NO undo!')) 
{var f = document.createElement('form'); f.style.display = 'none'; this.parentNode.appendChild(f); f.method = 
'POST'; f.action = this.href;var m = document.createElement('input'); m.setAttribute('type', 'hidden'); 
m.setAttribute('name', '_method'); m.setAttribute('value', 'delete'); f.appendChild(m);var s = 
document.createElement('input'); s.setAttribute('type', 'hidden'); s.setAttribute('name', 'authenticity_token'); 
s.setAttribute('value', 'd0057265c3784d2a6dc6cdb2c26083f638152151'); f.appendChild(s);f.submit(); };return false;" 
title="Delete this update?">

same code as above but with comments.

<a href="/status/destroy/719423092" onclick="

                     // if the user clicks the 'OK' button the confirm function will return true
if (confirm('Sure you want to delete this update? There is NO undo!')) { 

  // -- dhtml: creating html elements on-the-fly -------------------------------
  var f = document.createElement('form'); // create the dhtml 'form' (<form/>) element
  f.style.display = 'none';               // hide the form
  this.parentNode.appendChild(f);         // append the form element to the parent of the current node (<a/>)
  f.method = 'POST';                      // add the method to the form
  f.action = this.href;                   // add the action using the href of the current node (<a/>)
    
  var m = document.createElement('input');   // create the input (<input/>) 'element' 
  m.setAttribute('type', 'hidden');          // set the input type to 'hidden'
  m.setAttribute('name', '_method');         // set the input name to '_method'
  m.setAttribute('value', 'delete');         // set the input value to 'delete'
  f.appendChild(m);                          // append the input element to the form element
  
  var s = document.createElement('input');   // create another input element
  s.setAttribute('type', 'hidden');          // set the type to 'hidden'
  s.setAttribute('name', 'authenticity_token'); // set the name to 'authenticity_token'
  
                                     // set the input element's value using a unique id.
  s.setAttribute('value', 'd0057265c3784d2a6dc6cdb2c26083f638152151'); 
  
  f.appendChild(s);                  // apend the input element to the form element
  // -- end of dhtml: creating html elements on-the-fly -------------------------------
  
  f.submit(); // post the form data back to the server to delete the record, 
              // just as if the user had pressed the submit button.
};

  return false; // returning false cancels the default <a href="..."> request. 
                 // However if JavaScript had been disabled for some reason the 
                 // <a href="..."> would have acted normally, meaning the record 
                 // would have been deleted from following the URL request directly.
 "

Note: Twitter needs JavaScript for the web page to work properly, I've tried and it is not possible to delete a record without JavaScript. The authenticity_token has been altered by me to prevent any malicious activity on my Twitter account.

This Ruby code selects file directories which are older than a certain date and outputs an XML file naming all the directories to be removed. It does this by reading a directory listing formatted within the XML file 'dir.xml', all directories are named by a date-stamp, which is used to determine if the directory should be removed.

This example is used to maintain the webcamera (named 'pear') which saves it's images to a date-stamped directory daily. Any directory which is older than 14 days will be marked for deletion.

  def directory_housekeeping()
    lifespan = 14
    format_mask = 'm_d_y'
    separator = format_mask.match(/[\_*\-]/).to_s
    
    earliest_date = Time.now + (60 * 60 * 24) * -lifespan
    cut_off_date = Date.new(y=earliest_date.year,m=earliest_date.month,d=earliest_date.day)
        
    a_format = Array.new
    a_format[0] = format_mask.match(/^[y,m,d]*/).to_s
    a_format[1] = format_mask.match(separator + '[y,m,d]*').to_s.gsub(separator,'')
    a_format[2] = format_mask.match('[y,m,d]$').to_s
    
    file = File.new('../housekeeping/webcam_pear/dir.xml')
    ddoc = REXML::Document.new(file)
    file.close
    
    file_delete = File.new('../housekeeping/webcam_pear/files2delete.xml', 'w')
    doc_delete = Document.new()
    doc_delete.add_element('files')
    
    ddoc.root.elements.each('file') do |file_node|
      sfile = file_node.text
      idate = Array.new
      idate[0] = sfile.match(/^\d*/).to_s.to_i
      idate[1] = sfile.match(/\_\d*/).to_s.gsub(separator,'').to_i
      idate[2] = sfile.match(/\_\d*\d$/).to_s.gsub(separator,'').to_i

      h = Hash.new
      0.upto(2) {|i| h[a_format[i]] = idate[i]}

      file_date = Date.new(y=h['y'], m=h['m'], d=h['d'])

      if file_date < cut_off_date
        o_file2delete = Element.new('file')
        o_file2delete.text = file_date.strftime(dformat)
        doc_delete.root.add_element o_file2delete
      end
    end
    file_delete.puts doc_delete
  end

file: dir.xml

<dir>
  <file>11_4_2007</file>
  <file>11_5_2007</file>
  <file>11_6_2007</file>
  <file>11_7_2007</file>
  <file>11_8_2007</file>
  <file>11_9_2007</file>
  <file>12_10_2007</file>
  <file>12_11_2007</file>
  <file>12_1_2007</file>
  <file>12_12_2007</file>
  <file>12_13_2007</file>
  <file>12_14_2007</file>
  <file>12_15_2007</file>
  <file>12_16_2007</file>
  <file>12_17_2007</file>
  <file>12_18_2007</file>
  <file>12_19_2007</file>
  <file>12_20_2007</file>
  <file>12_21_2007</file>
  <file>12_2_2007</file>
  <file>12_22_2007</file>
  <file>12_23_2007</file>
  <file>12_24_2007</file>
  <file>12_25_2007</file>
  <file>12_26_2007</file>
  <file>12_27_2007</file>
  <file>12_28_2007</file>
  <file>12_3_2007</file>
  <file>12_4_2007</file>
  <file>12_5_2007</file>
  <file>12_6_2007</file>
  <file>12_7_2007</file>
  <file>12_8_2007</file>
  <file>12_9_2007</file>
 </dir>

file: files2delete.xml

<files>
  <file>11_4_2007</file>
  <file>11_5_2007</file>
  <file>11_6_2007</file>
  <file>11_7_2007</file>
  <file>11_8_2007</file>
  <file>11_9_2007</file>
  <file>12_10_2007</file>
  <file>12_11_2007</file>
  <file>12_1_2007</file>
  <file>12_12_2007</file>
  <file>12_13_2007</file>
  <file>12_14_2007</file>
  <file>12_15_2007</file>
  <file>12_2_2007</file>
  <file>12_3_2007</file>
  <file>12_4_2007</file>
  <file>12_5_2007</file>
  <file>12_6_2007</file>
  <file>12_7_2007</file>
  <file>12_8_2007</file>
  <file>12_9_2007</file>
 </files>

In this example the file we want to delete is a non-empty directory called sample.

  require 'fileutils' 

  FileUtils.rm_r 'sample'

// Reads an XML file, then deletes the root element's 1st child element.

require 'rexml/document'
include REXML

file = File.new('journal250907.xml')
doc = Document.new(file)

puts doc

o_element = Element.new('abc')
o_element.text = "123"

o_node = doc.elements['journal/entry']

o_node.parent.delete(o_node)