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Author Topic: Duplicate v Matching  (Read 4929 times)

petednz

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Duplicate v Matching
August 16, 2007, 03:58:20 pm
Hi - just coming back on this issue. Is this my confusion or the systems? I put in a new contact and hit "Check for Matching Contacts" - it finds one based on the Matching Contacts rules (??)

It then comes up with a message saying
Quote
Please correct the following errors in the form fields below:

    * 3 matching contacts were found. You can edit them here: NAME#1 , Name#2 , NAME#3, or click Save Duplicate Contact button below.

Below that there is a button next to the 'Check for Matching Contacts" button that says "Save duplicate contact".

Seems that by using the term 'duplicate' and 'matching' could confuse people (it does me) when there are one set of rules used for 'Matching Contacts' [which when you click on it is called "Duplicate Matching Rules"!!] and a separate set of rules termed "Duplicate Contact Rules".

I think some different terminology might add some clarification in this area.

Certainly being asked to 'Save Duplicate Contact' is not intuitive - especially as it comes up whenever one Edits an existing contact's details and then hits 'Save'. (Is this latter a bug?]

Also not sure that "Please correct the following errors" is a great message - especially when it comes up when one Edits an existing contact. Throws users in to doubt about what they have done.
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Kurund Jalmi

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Re: Duplicate v Matching
August 17, 2007, 12:42:50 am
Quote
Hi - just coming back on this issue. Is this my confusion or the systems? I put in a new contact and hit "Check for Matching Contacts" - it finds one based on the Matching Contacts rules (??)
- This uses Contact Matching Rules.

Quote
Seems that by using the term 'duplicate' and 'matching' could confuse people (it does me) when there are one set of rules used for 'Matching Contacts' [which when you click on it is called "Duplicate Matching Rules"!!] and a separate set of rules termed "Duplicate Contact Rules".
- Yes, i agree. We have added more help for this to avoid confusion. check http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/admin/dupematch?reset=1

Quote
Certainly being asked to 'Save Duplicate Contact' is not intuitive - especially as it comes up whenever one Edits an existing contact's details and then hits 'Save'. (Is this latter a bug?]
- There is difference between both the actions. When you hit "Save Duplicate Contact" it ignores the "Contact Matching Rules" unlike when you hit "Save" it will check those rules.

HTH

kurund
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petednz

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Re: Duplicate v Matching
August 17, 2007, 04:18:22 am
Hey Kurund
Quote
Quote
Seems that by using the term 'duplicate' and 'matching' could confuse people (it does me) when there are one set of rules used for 'Matching Contacts' [which when you click on it is called "Duplicate Matching Rules"!!] and a separate set of rules termed "Duplicate Contact Rules".
- Yes, i agree. We have added more help for this to avoid confusion. check http://demo.civicrm.org/drupal/civicrm/admin/dupematch?reset=1


But my point related to the para above ie
1/when i 'edit' an existing record and hit save it applies the 'matching' rules
2/ if those rules identify a 'match' it tells me in a large pink box saying
Quote
Please correct the following errors in the form fields below:

    * 3 matching contacts were found. You can edit them here: NAME#1 , Name#2 , NAME#3, or click Save Duplicate Contact button below.

3/ it also presents me with a new button alongside the 'Check for Matching Contacts" button that says "Save duplicate contact".

I think there ares several problems with this being
1/ it should not have applied the 'matching rules' when I am editing an existing contact, or if it does it needs to do so more 'constructively'
2/ it should not refer to 'errors in the form fields'
3/ it should not then bring in a new button that seems to conflate the issues of 'matching' and 'duplicate'

I see the demo site says
Quote
It is also used to alert you of a matching Individual contact record when you create a new Individual.

This seems to confirm that it should not be applying to existing contacts that are being edited.

Quote
Quote
Certainly being asked to 'Save Duplicate Contact' is not intuitive - especially as it comes up whenever one Edits an existing contact's details and then hits 'Save'. (Is this latter a bug?]
- There is difference between both the actions. When you hit "Save Duplicate Contact" it ignores the "Contact Matching Rules" unlike when you hit "Save" it will check those rules.

I think this misses the points I made earlier in that post and have again repeated in this one.
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Kurund Jalmi

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Re: Duplicate v Matching
August 17, 2007, 05:39:21 am
Quote
1/when i 'edit' an existing record and hit save it applies the 'matching' rules
2/ if those rules identify a 'match' it tells me in a large pink box saying

Please correct the following errors in the form fields below:
    * 3 matching contacts were found. You can edit them here: NAME#1 , Name#2 , NAME#3, or click Save Duplicate Contact button below.
3/ it also presents me with a new button alongside the 'Check for Matching Contacts" button that says "Save duplicate contact".

- There are other contact(s) besides the one you are editing with same details in your database. That's reason message is displayed and if you still want to Save, you need to use "Save Duplicate Contact".( which will ignore Contact Matching Rules)

Quote
1/ it should not have applied the 'matching rules' when I am editing an existing contact, or if it does it needs to do so more 'constructively'
- There is always a possibility that user might edit contact with details that already exits in database, hence to avoid this we need to check rules in "Contact Matching". Basically avoid duplicate contacts being added via Edit mode.

Quote
Certainly being asked to 'Save Duplicate Contact' is not intuitive - especially as it comes up whenever one Edits an existing contact's details and then hits 'Save'. (Is this latter a bug?]
- No. This is not a bug. When you click Edit Contact, 'Save Duplicate Contact' is not  shown. It is shown only when you hit Save and if there is already a contact(s) matching with details that you have entered.

HTH

kurund
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petednz

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Re: Duplicate v Matching
August 17, 2007, 11:54:22 am
I understand your arguments. WHen I hit 'save' or 'find matching' it uses the 'matching rules' and if it finds a record that 'matches' it asks if you want to 'save the duplicate record'.

So we have Matching Rules set to 'firstname' 'lastname' and 'city'. We have two people in the same city with the same names. If I edit the phone number of one of them and hit save i get the 'error in fields' message and the 'save duplicate' button becomes available.

The issues for me is the logic and the language being used, namely

1/ it uses 'matching rules' but tells me it is a 'duplicate' when I think it should tell me it is a 'matched' (ie I think it should use more consistent language and not mix the 'duplicate' and 'match' terms)

2/ the two contacts are not 'duplicates' they are two different people whose details do 'match' so why call them 'duplicates' :-\
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Piotr Szotkowski

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Re: Duplicate v Matching
August 17, 2007, 12:36:09 pm
Thanks for catching this, I changed the ‘Save Duplicate Contact’ strings to say ‘Save Matching Contact’ in r10951 on the v1.8 branch.

Note: In CiviCRM 2.0 we’ll use the dedupe engine to handle both cases.
If you found the above helpful, please consider helping us in return – you can even steer CiviCRM’s future and help us extend CiviCRM in ways useful to you.

petednz

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Re: Duplicate v Matching
August 17, 2007, 03:20:59 pm
Yay - thanks Piotr.
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tomslee

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Re: Duplicate v Matching
August 29, 2007, 03:29:54 pm
FWIW I'm with PeterD on this. I'm a new user and have been hopelessly confused by the options around the duplicate matching. I had no idea what "Save Duplicate Contact" does, or why I would want to edit the other contact. Ideally what I'd like is the option to merge the two contacts.

CiviCRM is great - I don't want to grumble about it - but this is confusing.

petednz

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Re: Duplicate v Matching
August 29, 2007, 03:45:41 pm
And actually not sure that 'Save Matching Contact' really works either :'( - afterall what is happening at this point is that I am saving an existing contact despite the matching rules telling me that there is a potential 'matching contact' - so in fact it is not the 'matching contact' i am wanting to save but the original (or new) contact - therefore the instruction might be better if it was something like 'saving this contact despite potential match'  ;)
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Piotr Szotkowski

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Re: Duplicate v Matching
August 30, 2007, 02:55:04 am
Thanks for the comments, Tom and Peter. We agree that the current situation is far from ideal and we’ll try to fix it as much as we can in CiviCRM 2.0 and further versions. And we definitely do appreciate your comments.
If you found the above helpful, please consider helping us in return – you can even steer CiviCRM’s future and help us extend CiviCRM in ways useful to you.
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  • CiviCRM Community Forums (archive) »
  • Old sections (read-only, deprecated) »
  • Support »
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  • Using Core CiviCRM Functions (Moderator: Yashodha Chaku) »
  • Duplicate v Matching

This forum was archived on 2017-11-26.