Difference between revisions of "Help talk:How to merge authors"

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(Add some notes on script behaviour)
 
(More notes on different merges)
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There are now three possible merges: "All records", "Only title records", and "Only publication records".  For these examples, the "target" of the merge is "Test Author1; the "source" (i.e the author which is surplus to requirements) in Test Author2.
 
There are now three possible merges: "All records", "Only title records", and "Only publication records".  For these examples, the "target" of the merge is "Test Author1; the "source" (i.e the author which is surplus to requirements) in Test Author2.
  
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#If you select only publication records, the pub_authors record is updated so that the publication Test Title 2 now shows the author as Test Author1.  However, the title record is not touched, so there is now a publication for Test Title 2, credited to Test Author 1 (in pub_auths).  There is a link to the titles via pub_content, but this is pointing to a title record that is linked to Test Author1.  This leads to some odd results.  For example, there will still be a Test Author2 record, and a title record for Test Title 2 under that author, but there will be no publications for that title that point to that author.  The result is that if you display Test Author2, you'll still see Test Title 2, and clicking on it will list a publication for it, presumably because the page displays pubs found under that title_id in the pub_content table.  Then clicking on the publication shows the author, from pub_authors, i.e. Test Author1.
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#If you select only publication records, only the pub_authors record is updated.  Now the publication Test Title2 still has an author of Test Author2, but the pub_auths record links it to Test Author1.  Test Author1 will display only Test Title 1, and Test Author 2 will still display Test Title2, since this is still the state of the cross-reference canonical_author records.  Displaying Test Title2 shows a publication as Test Title2--I'm not sure how pubs are selected for display under a title.  Lexically, where the title matches the pub title and the author matches from pub_author?  That can't be right because pub_author has been updated.
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#If you select only title records,  
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#If you select only title records, then Test Author1 acquires a new title, Test Title2, and both titles are listed for that author.  Clicking on Test Title 2 shows that the publication record for Test Title2 still points to Test Author2, though, so this publication shows up as a "stray publication" for Test Author2.
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#If you select all records,
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#If you select all records, the canonical_author and pub_author records are updated to point to Test Author1.  The authors record for Test Author2 is deleted.  The result is as if Test Author2 had never existed, and Test Title2 had been entered for Test Author 1 in the first place.
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[[User:Mike Christie|Mike Christie]] 19:30, 19 Jun 2006 (CDT)

Revision as of 20:30, 19 June 2006

Suppose you enter the following two publications:

Test Title 1, by Test Author1 Test Title 2, by Test Author2

This creates two pubs, two titles, and two authors, and two records in pub_authors and two in canonical_author (which is the title_author cross reference).

There are now three possible merges: "All records", "Only title records", and "Only publication records". For these examples, the "target" of the merge is "Test Author1; the "source" (i.e the author which is surplus to requirements) in Test Author2.

  1. If you select only publication records, only the pub_authors record is updated. Now the publication Test Title2 still has an author of Test Author2, but the pub_auths record links it to Test Author1. Test Author1 will display only Test Title 1, and Test Author 2 will still display Test Title2, since this is still the state of the cross-reference canonical_author records. Displaying Test Title2 shows a publication as Test Title2--I'm not sure how pubs are selected for display under a title. Lexically, where the title matches the pub title and the author matches from pub_author? That can't be right because pub_author has been updated.
  2. If you select only title records, then Test Author1 acquires a new title, Test Title2, and both titles are listed for that author. Clicking on Test Title 2 shows that the publication record for Test Title2 still points to Test Author2, though, so this publication shows up as a "stray publication" for Test Author2.
  3. If you select all records, the canonical_author and pub_author records are updated to point to Test Author1. The authors record for Test Author2 is deleted. The result is as if Test Author2 had never existed, and Test Title2 had been entered for Test Author 1 in the first place.

Mike Christie 19:30, 19 Jun 2006 (CDT)

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