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The manual merge ☍ operation allows you to selectively transfer content from a secondary entry to a master entry, merging the information from two entries into a single one. The merging operation can be useful when you need to consolidate duplicates and clean corrupt entries.
To access the merge feature:
- go to the ‘Management’ menu, and
- click on the ‘Merge’ tab.
In the merge screen:
- add the ID of the entries to be merged (if not already done),
- select one ‘Master’ and one ‘Secondary’ entry, and
- click on ‘Start manual merge’.
 When selecting the entries to be merged, please note that you can only select one master and one secondary, as the manual merge operation can only be done in pairs. |
Entries with protected data can only be selected for manual merge if the protection has been applied by your institution and you have the necessary permissions to work on those entries.
The content of both entries will be displayed on the screen, with:
- the master entry on the left side, and
- the secondary entry on the right.
| Once you select the entries to be merged, the Master and Secondary entries are both locked. The lock lasts 24 hours, or until it is removed manually. |
The fields are organised into different blocks per level (LIL, LL, and TLs). In each block, you can choose whether to:
- keep the content from the master or the secondary,
- or concatenate (combine data from both entries).
At the TL, you can select which terms to keep and which to ignore. During a merge operation, you will only be able to view the parts of your entry that are in your working languages. These can be accessed by using the language navigation bar between the LIL and LL.
Entry metadata is kept automatically; at LIL, it is taken from the master entry, and at LL and TL, it is taken from whichever parts are kept. Sensitive values (confidentiality, protection, validation, primarity) are taken from the master or secondary, depending on which one you have selected to keep.
When you concatenate the LLs, the resulting definition field will add the number 1 before content from the master and the number 2 before content from the secondary. The definition references will be listed in separate fields below.
If an LL is present on the secondary but not on the master, the default will be ‘Keep secondary’, but you can skip the merge if needed. Likewise, if a term is present on the secondary but not on the master, the default will be ‘Insert term’, but you can switch this to ‘Ignore term’, when necessary.
 If you need to transfer all the collections (at LIL, LL and TL) or all the customers (TL) from the secondary to the master entry, click on the  icon at the top-right of the merge screen. This batch transfer of collections and customers does not trigger unvalidation. |
Once you have finished with making your selections for a given LIL or language:
- Click on the blue buttons to finally merge the information (‘Merge LIL’ and ‘Merge LL+TLs’).
When a language has been merged, the language code will be marked in green in the language navigation bar and the date of the merge will also be displayed in green.
Once you have completed the merge operation, depending on your user rights, you can unlock the entries and leave the screen. Depending on the languages present in the entry and your user rights, you might then be able to delete the secondary entry manually. Administrators can unlock the entries and leave the screen, or, using the red button, unlock the entries and delete the secondary entry.
You can access the history of the entry from the merge screen by clicking on the ‘history’ icon  . |
A ‘roll back’ button allows you to reverse the merge operation at any time (consult the user groups and access rights for more information).
(*) User groups and access rights
Check which IATE users can do the following manual merging operations:
| User group | Manual merge | Entries with protected data | Automatic merge | Reverse action (‘roll back’ button) | Unlock the entries and leave the screen | Delete the secondary entry manually |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EXTERNAL USER | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| BASIC USER | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| TRANSLATOR and above | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| TERMINOLOGIST and above | Yes (only languages for which they have editing rights) | Yes (if protection has been applied by your institution and you have the necessary permissions) | No | No | Yes | Yes (only languages for which they have editing rights) |
| ADMINISTRATOR | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |