Merge Function & Conflict Handling

The Merge Function enables AM Administrators to blend data in the SDA database with data created by other sources, especially data created by one or more of the vendors and distributed to the company by CorsPro.

The Merge Function differs from the Import Function in that the Import Function, imports Administrators own data into the Parts Master table, while the Merge Function blends the data with data created and updated by other sources. In addition, the Merge Function blends data from all SDA database tables and not just the Parts Master table as is the case with the Import Function.

The Merge Function intelligently identifies conflicts between the Admins SDA database and a SDA database provided by another source. There are two types of conflicts that are identified and handled via the Conflicts Handling View:

Duplicate records – The Merge Function identifies records created by the Admin that have the same key (e.g., PartNumber in the Parts Master) as records created by another source. The Admin will be offered the opportunity to replace their version of the record with the version created by the other source, or choose to continue to use the version that is already created by “accepting” the conflict.

Updated records – When Admins update certain fields in records created by other sources, and the record creator subsequently updates the record, the record will be identified as a conflict so that there is an opportunity to review and accept or reject what has changed.

Assume there was an original Parts Master record created by a vendor that had InstallHrs set to 2, and it was subsequently changed to 4. If the vendor then changed the value to 6, the record would be identified as a “conflict” to give the AM a chance to change it to 6, or to confirm to keep the value set to 4.

To merge the AM Admins SDA database with a database provided by another source

• Browse for the source database
• Click the Merge button
• Architect Manager will merge the two databases and list the number of new records, inserts, updates and conflicts.

CONFLICT HANDLING

To resolve the conflicts

• Click Tools
• Click Conflict Handling
• Choose the database table from the Table drop-down
• Select the record from the Record Key drop-down

If the conflict is a duplicate record, then the Admin will receive a message telling them that the Merge Function has identified records with the same key in the source and target databases that were created by different entities. They will have the option of clicking Use Imported Record to move most of the fields from the imported source record into the target database.

Review the fields in the record and modify them as necessary.

• By typing new values in the Merged Value column OR
• Clicking on the “>” and “<” symbols to move values from the source or target databases into the Merged Value column
• Click the Accept button to move the values in the Merged Value column into the target database record
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For duplicate records do not click “Use Imported Record” and instead click “Accept”, indicating to continue to use the record in the target database as opposed to the imported record. As a result, the NEXT time the merge operation is performed the same duplicate record conflict will happen again. Therefore, click “Use Imported Record” whenever possible eliminate future duplicate record conflicts.

If the conflict is NOT a duplicate record, the Admin can

• Modify the values in the Merged Value column directly OR
• Click the “>” and “<” symbols to move values from the source or target databases into the Merged Value column.
• Click the Accept button to move the values in the Merged Value column into the target database record when all changes have been made.

For the document section table (Section_tbl), three other buttons will appear as well.

• The View Local Word Doc and View Import Word Doc buttons can be used to view the Word document sections in the Target (local) and Source (import) databases so that you can compare the two versions.
• To move the version of the Word document in the import database into the local database, click the Use Imported Doc button.
• Click the Accept button, when finished with changes, to move the values in the Merged Value column (including the Word doc itself) into the target database record.

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