Merging Duplicate Records [1549]

• 09-22-2009, 1:45 PM

  14383

  Meagan Joined about 2 years ago Posts 79

  Merging Duplicate Records [1549] Reply Quote Is there a way in WA to merge duplicate records? We have found that quite a few of our members have multiple accounts with different email addresses. I think this came from people not being able to figure out how to renew. (Partly user error, partly because it was not intuitive for them to go to "view profile" to renew. The biggest bulk of these problems came from memebrs who were imported into WA and didn't understand that their old member record is already in our new system) Anyway,  Can I merge these records as opposed to deleting one of them? Thanks, Meagan

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• 09-22-2009, 1:53 PM

  14384 in reply to 14383

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,186	Re: Merging Duplicate Records? Reply Quote There is no merge function - but sounds like a very good suggestion, I will move this to wishlist to collect votes and comments Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 11-03-2009, 2:37 PM

  14938 in reply to 14384

  higicc Joined about 2 years ago Posts 1

  Re: Merging Duplicate Records? Reply Quote Being able to merge records would be a very good thing. Doing this manually is becoming a bit of a chore as our organization grows. We've been seeing more users establishing duplicate accounts by signing on with different email addresses. In some cases the "merging/purging" is not difficult -- they're only interested in getting email updates, so transferring data and deleting one record is not a big deal. However, in other cases, users are attending multiple events and joining as paid members using different accounts -- we want to consolidate the records without losing that history. Being able to merge the records electronically would be a tremendous help...

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• 11-03-2009, 2:50 PM

  14939 in reply to 14938

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,186	Re: Merging Duplicate Records? Reply Quote Understood - and this is moving up in our work queue. Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 11-11-2009, 2:13 PM

  15074 in reply to 14939

  Jenn Joined about 2 years ago Posts 4

  Re: Merging Duplicate Records? Reply Quote I would love to see this option.  Many of our members and event registrants now have duplicate records and deleting and recreating the proper history with losing transaction history to clean up the records is going to create a longer term mess.  Usually it is because someone uses a different email, but I have several that are just typos.  Being able to correct this without losing transaction history would be wonderful!   Please add my VOTE!      Jennifer Taylor Ohio Wildlife Rehabilitators Association Membership, Registration & Website Manager www.owra.org

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• 01-08-2010, 12:13 PM

  16024 in reply to 15074

  Anonymous	Re: Merging Duplicate Records? Reply Quote We've made this one of our Top 50 - the 50 big issues we want to get developed in 2010. We'll post when we have a solution designed, as well as a release date set. As always, please let us know if you have any ideas, insights, or suggestions on how this can the most useful for you.

• 01-13-2010, 11:11 AM

  16114 in reply to 16024

  duks Joined about 3 years ago Posts 12

  Re: Merging Duplicate Records? Reply Quote I use to be able to merge by fiddling with the email addresses somehow, but for the life of me I can't remember what I was doing.  Once the new changes were put in place I was unable to fool it anymore (this was between registrations and a memberships only). I think a choice of "yes merge with existing record" after you enter an email already in use would be the easiest for me.  That way a duplicate record could opened manually, updated with the correct email and moved to correspond with the proper person.  Maybe a choice of move what?  ie. events, transactions, membership, or "all" would be helpful too. Sounds simple, but sure it isn't. Thanks, Jennifer Taylor Ohio Wildlife Rehabilitators Association www.owra.org

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• 02-12-2010, 3:46 PM

  16879 in reply to 14384

  stone Joined about 3 years ago Posts 5

  Re: Merging Duplicate Records? Reply Quote Please count this as a "yes" vote on adding a contact merge feature. I have a person who has event history with three different accounts (student, work, personal), and I would like to preserve her attendance history without archiving or deleting the duplicates. Thanks, Michael Johnson Chief_Apricot: There is no merge function - but sounds like a very good suggestion, I will move this to wishlist to collect votes and comments

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• 02-26-2010, 8:18 PM

  17137 in reply to 16879

  Teri Joined about 2 years ago Posts 71	Re: Merging Duplicate Records? Reply Quote Add my yes vote to this
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• 03-01-2010, 10:25 AM

  17159 in reply to 14384

  BigBen Joined about 3 years ago Toronto Posts 26	Re: Merging Duplicate Records? Reply Quote Chief_Apricot: There is no merge function - but sounds like a very good suggestion, I will move this to wishlist to collect votes and comments   sounds like a good idea. Cheers, Ben
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• 05-17-2010, 12:10 AM

  18290 in reply to 16024

  James Kerich Joined about 3 years ago Posts 80

  Re: Merging Duplicate Records? Reply Quote I would also love to see this implemented.  What is the status of this enhancement?   I think one easy way to make this work is if you control the merge from the e-mail address.  Perhaps what you can do is allow Admin users to key a duplicate e-mail address and if the system sees it as a duplicate, you can offer two options: "Merge the current record with an existing record (CAUTION: All contact/membership field information from this record will be replaced by the existing record information, but all registration and payment history will be retained) "This e-mail address is already in use, please provide a unique e-mail address for this record"   The only real issue I can see is if they have already paid and/or applied for a membership on both records.  What rule should be used for survival?  My suggestion is that the existing record should retain the renewal date the farthest out.  So if the record being merge has a renewal date farther out than the existing record, then the existing record should be updated with that renewal date.

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• 05-17-2010, 9:48 AM

  18292 in reply to 18290

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,186	Re: Merging Duplicate Records? Reply Quote Thanks James, we have actually designed this pretty much along these lines - merge will be activated from one contact record and it would be possible to select another contact record to merge with. I will add your comments re membership to development notes.  Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 09-27-2010, 6:17 PM

  19913 in reply to 17159

  ScrltOTara Joined about 1 year ago Posts 17	Merging contacts Reply Quote Is there a way to merge duplicate contacts?
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• 09-28-2010, 1:00 PM

  19921 in reply to 17159

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,186	Re: Merging contacts Reply Quote Sorry, no way to do so now but this is on our wishlist, I will merge your post.  Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 09-28-2010, 8:34 PM

  19935 in reply to 19921

  skipat Joined about 2 years ago Posts 111	Re: Merging contacts Reply Quote Add my vote to adding this capability.
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• 01-20-2011, 10:46 PM

  21250 in reply to 19935

  mspreitz Joined about 1 year ago Posts 14

  Re: Merging contacts Reply Quote My organization is working on adopting Wild Apricot, and I expect duplicate records to be a serious issue.  I will load my existing membership database into Wild Apricot, but I expect some existing members will later "join" due to confusion or whatnot.   If we are lucky they will use the same e-mail address, but --- at least for my organization --- we definitely can not count on that.  One common reason is simply that people change their e-mail addresses somewhat frequently, and have multiple e-mail addresses.  For my organization there is the additional challenge that my existing membership database has e-mail addresses for only about half of the members.  For the other half I will invent fake e-mail addresses that they can use to log into Wild Apricot --- if they haven't lost the information I will give them and if they understand it correctly.  So I am interested in finding duplicates based on more general/flexible criteria than simply email address.  In my organization the thing that really matters has been the physical mailing address, not the e-mail address.

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• 01-21-2011, 9:31 AM

  21255 in reply to 21250

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,186	Re: Merging contacts Reply Quote We decided that we will not be able to develop a full-proof automated way to identify duplicates so will not automate that but assume that administrators will identify them manually through advanced or text search. So this particular feature will be focused on merging two records (already found). Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 01-30-2011, 3:21 PM

  21409 in reply to 21255

  mspreitz Joined about 1 year ago Posts 14	Re: Merging contacts Reply Quote Yes, I think it's good that merging is not done automatically --- particularly when identifying duplicates is a non-trivial exercise that can err in either direction.  But, I would like WildApricot's help in finding duplicates.  I would like an ability to search for duplicates based on partial or full match of name or physical mailing address.
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• 01-31-2011, 8:24 AM

  21416 in reply to 21409

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,186	Re: Merging contacts Reply Quote Understood. We will not have anything for finding the duplicates - just  functionality to do the actual merging - then we will monitor feedback and consider this. Feel free to create a new thread right away about finding duplicates - and share your thoughts on possible matching algorithms. .  Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 02-07-2011, 4:16 PM

  21515 in reply to 14383

  edog6000 Joined about 1 year ago Posts 10	Re: Merging Duplicate Records [1549] Reply Quote I definitely vote YES for this feature.  Hopefully in the next version???
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• 02-07-2011, 4:23 PM

  21516 in reply to 21515

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,186	Re: Merging Duplicate Records [1549] Reply Quote Yes, it's scheduled for next update 4.2 in May.  Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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• 02-15-2011, 5:44 PM

  21614 in reply to 21516

  Gordon Joined about 4 years ago Posts 182

  Re: Merging Duplicate Records [1549] Reply Quote Clearly, the ability to correct the inevitable duplications of records in a system such as this is essential.  However I'm disappointed that apparently there is no planned solution to the challenge of locating duplicate or near duplicate records that require changing.   There is little point in investing in a solution if there is no way to locate the problem the solution is designed to solve.

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• 05-25-2011, 8:23 AM

  22653 in reply to 14383

  Chief_Apricot Joined about 5 years ago Toronto Posts 4,186	Re: Merging Duplicate Records [1549] Reply Quote Release - see http://help.wildapricot.com/display/DOC/Merging+Records   Dmitry Buterin, Chief Apricot
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