When you are in a rush creating duplicate entries can happen by mistake. Or maybe you are working with legacy data that needs to be tidied up. By consolidating duplicate data you improve data quality and avoid confusion.
When there are agents that have been recorded more than once, usually one agent is the one that is considered the Master Agent and that contains much of the data that is required when linking the agent to an Art event. In these cases, the "Duplicate Agents" contain data that sometimes is being used in other Art events. Ideally we should have one Master Agent used throughout our Archiving & Cataloguing solution. The Duplicate Agents need to be cleaned up with their respective data and references transferred to or replaced by to the Master Agent or removed altogether.
This feature is precisely to perform such cleanup and this flow is intended to let you know how to do it from the Duplicate Agent's detail view, in two ways:
- To consolidate a duplicate agent entry that has already been marked as duplicate, follow this tutorial to consolidate 2 duplicate agents from the list view
- To learn how to identify and consolidate unmarked agents, follow the steps below:
1. Access the Archiving and Cataloguing Solution
2. Click on Agents
In our Archiving & Cataloguing solution, go to Agents and you will see the list view where all the agents created are displayed.
Ideally, you have already marked the Duplicate Agents and the Master Agent as such. If that is the case then you just need to open the Master and the Duplicate(s) on a different tab each.
3. Find the repeated agents
If that is not the case, our suggestion is to:
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Use the Name column and sort it in ascendant or descendant way
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Go through the list view and detect the agents that you have more than once listed
4. Open each agent in a separate tab to mark them respectively
3. When you find the same agent listed more than once open them in separate tabs
4. Review the data on each Agent and decide which one will be the Master and which
one will be Duplicate
5. Use the kebab menu in the nav bar to mark each respectively
5. Mark the agents respectively
6. Enter the Master Agent's ID
When you mark a Duplicate Agent as such, a field is displayed for you to enter the ID of the Master Agent or the agent that should replace the duplicate.
7. Have both agents data displayed
The moment you enter the Master Agent ID, an overlay is displayed and you will see 2 columns of data:
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Left column is the Duplicate Agent and it displays all the data coming from it
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Right column is the Master Agent and it displays all the data coming from it
The basic data that can only be replaced is:
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Agent type
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Main Name
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Gender. This one in particular only becomes enabled when the Agent type is Person
8. Options for Additional data
There is data that can have more than one record and therefore can be worked out in other ways, not only to be transferred to the Master Agent:
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Additional names. These can be:
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Transferred to Master. this is the option presented by default
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Delete References. this option will remove the relationships established between the Additional name and an Art Event
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Replace with. this option will replace the relationship established between the Additional name and an Art Event
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9. Delete References
When we talk about Deleting References, this is the removal of the relationships between the Additional Name and the Art Event. This means that, wherever the Duplicate Agent's Additional Name is used, it will no longer be related not displayed.
10. Replace with...
When we talk about Replacing with, this means that all the relationships that are between the Additional Name and the Art Events will be replaced by an Additional Name from the Master Data.
11. Click on Replacement
When you select the option Replace with... a new field is displayed and upon clicking on it, you will see all the Additional Names coming from the Master Agent so you can select which Additional Name should be the one replacing the one coming from the Duplicate Agent.
This way, all the relationships where the Duplicate Agent's Additional Name is connected to, will not connect to the Master Agent.
12. Select the Additional Name from Master Agent
13. Work the Addresses
The Addresses are similar to the Additional Names
14. Click on option
The options are the same:
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Transfer to Master. selected by default
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Replace with...
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Delete References
15. Select a replacement
16. Work the Notes
The Notes however only provide 2 options
17. Select the option
- Transfer to Master. which is the default option
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Delete References
The reason why there is no Replace with... option is because the notes can be quite varied in text length, therefore it is unlikely that you will have the same note in the Master Agent to replace the one coming from the Duplicate Agent, plus the notes are solely IN the agent per se, they are not connected to an Art Event throughout our Archiving and Cataloguing solution so the only options viable and useful are the ones above mentioned.
18. Click on Save
Once you have worked each single data record, the Save button will be enabled.
Important: You mush work each single data record
19. Delete or not delete the Duplicate Agent
When you click on Save, the consolidation of the agents take place, this means that the data from the Duplicate Agent will be consolidated with the data from the Master Agent.
You will see a light box from which you can opt to either Delete the Duplicate Agent or Keep the Duplicate Agent, the consolidation will take place regardless.
20. Select NO to the deletion of the Duplicate Agent
There might be times when you need to keep the Duplicate Agent. When that is the case, upon selecting no, the consolidation will take place; the Duplicate Agent will remain, and you can keep working on it, or later on archive it.
You will get a notification of this.
21. Delete or not delete the Duplicate Agent
When you are sure that you have worked the data correctly and now you have your super Master Agent then you can go ahead and have it deleted. In the light box displayed after you have clicked on Save, you can select YES.
22. Duplicate Agent is deleted
The consolidation will take place; the Duplicate Agent is deleted; and you are taken back to the Agents list view with the respective notification.
23. Look up the agents
If you look up the agents you just consolidated, you will see that only the Master Agent remains when you have deleted the Duplicate Agent.
