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Topic: Duplicated Data on merge

Not sure whether this is considered a bug or an enhancement request!

* When two sites are merged, the data from both sites is added to the Admin Areas and the Grid Squares - unfortunately the Grid Squares field does not allow duplicate data, so after any merge (where this field contains data) it cannot be saved after an edit until all the duplicate data has been resolved (although the site works fine if not edited)
* Additionally the merged grid refs CANNOT be deleted.

This is an issue
1) If the merged site already contains duplicate data (i.e. it is the result of a merge by another centre) - the site cannot be edited because the duplicates cannot be deleted
2) If the site has a VERY long list of valid grid references, the list in the panel is not in alphabetical order, making it almost impossible to locate the duplicate pairings

Can this be sorted out so that the merge removes any duplicates in the incoming site to prevent the present lock-out!

Craig

Craig Slawson
Staffordshire Ecological Record

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Re: Duplicated Data on merge

Sorry forgot:

1) the merged grid refs CANNOT be deleted if they originate from another copy of Recorder
2) is there a batch file for cleaning up these duplicates?

Craig

Craig Slawson
Staffordshire Ecological Record

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Re: Duplicated Data on merge

All that happens with a merge is that wherever the old Location key is used it changes it to the new key.  This very simple approach  makes  no attempt to see if the data already exists on the new Location.   The same approach is used with Name or any other  merges. 

There isn't a good  reason why you should be prevented form deleting grid square even if you are not the owner and I can look at  fixing this. The grid square issue is a bug, because it causes an error and I can deal with this. I am not sure how much can be done about making more sense of the merges by not keeping duplicates as this is going to be substantially more work, because of the many places which will need to be checked, but I can take a look.

Mike Weideli

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Re: Duplicated Data on merge

I've only come across a "problem" when merging locations (grid references) and survey events (names). A batch update to remove duplicates would be good enough for me.

(I've not had any problems deleting grid refs)

Charlie Barnes
Information Officer
Greater Lincolnshire Nature Partnership