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The automatic merge ☍ operation allows you to consolidate anywhere from two to ten duplicates by merging all of them into a brand-new entry that you can clean up afterwards. All the merged entries (master and secondaries) are deleted automatically (if you have the necessary permissions).
Read more on user groups and access rights.
In the merge screen:
- add entries to the merge operation by ID,
- select one of the entries as master, and
- select up to nine entries as secondaries.
Primary entries and entries marked as confidential at language-independent level (LIL), language level (LL) or term level (TL) cannot be included in an automatic merge operation. Entries with protected data can only be included if the protection has been applied by your institution and you have the necessary permissions to work on those entries.
The merge operation works as follows:
- The master and all the secondary entries are locked. The lock lasts 24 hours, or until it is removed manually.
- A preview of the new entry containing the merged data is displayed. You can check it and decide whether to execute the merge or discard it.
- The preview includes a warning of the entries that will be deleted or that cannot be deleted due to lack of permissions (for example, in the case of a protected master or secondary entry). If the character limit for a particular field is exceeded, the content is automatically truncated.
The data are merged as follows depending on the level:
At LIL
- Data from all entries are concatenated in the new LIL, which will contain the entry metadata from the master entry.
- Confidential fields: if there are confidential fields in any of the entries, the corresponding field in the new entry will be confidential.
- Lifecycle: if present in any of the entries, it is transferred to the new entry. If conflicting values exist, the new entry keeps the most restrictive status following this order: (1) abandoned, (2) historical, and (3) proposed.
- Cross-references: if present on any of the entries, they are transferred to the new entry. In case of conflicting cross-references, only the one belonging to the master entry is retained.
At LL
- Data from all entries are concatenated in the new LL, which will contain the admin info from the master entry, if that language was present in the master.
- Pre-IATE: if an LL is marked as pre-IATE in any of the entries, this value is transferred to the new LL.
- Confidential fields: if there are confidential fields in any of the LLs merged, the corresponding field in the new LL will be confidential.
- Concatenated LLs will be set to ‘not validated’. LLs inserted without modifications will retain the validation value they previously had.
At TL
- All TLs from all the entries will be inserted individually in the new entry (including duplicated terms). Each TL will retain the admin info from the original entry.
- Pre-IATE: if a TL is marked as pre-IATE in any of the entries, this value is transferred to the new TL.
- Confidential fields: if there are confidential fields in any of the TLs inserted, the corresponding field in the new TL will be confidential.
- New TLs from the secondary entries will be ‘not validated’. TLs from the master entry will retain their original validation value.
A mark (comment) is then added to the new merged entry with the list of entries that were part of the automatic merge operation.
 You can use the ‘Add to table view’ button to get an overview of the entries to be merged, along with their metadata. This view also allows you to preview each entry and provides direct shortcuts for actions such as viewing the entry’s history or adding marks. |
(*) User groups and access rights
Check below which IATE users are able to perform automatic merges:
| User group | Automatic merge |
|---|---|
| BASIC USER | No |
| TRANSLATOR, TRANSLATOR+, TERMINOLOGIST | No |
| TERMINOLOGIST+ | Yes (with the specific rights for the entries) |
| ADMINISTRATOR | Yes |