The Duplicate Merge Manager window is used to find, select, merge, delete, or keep possible duplicate records.
You must have a Customers authorization level of 4 (select File> System Setup and click User Passwords) to use the Duplicate Merge Manager.
■ From Customers, select Manage duplicates to display the Duplicate Merge Manager window.
Multiple-user functionality is achieved through the use of temporary and permanent tables. Duplicate groups that are found, managed, and merged while using Duplicate Merge Manager without being saved to the permanent tables for use during a later Duplicate Merge Manager session are referred to as the current session. There is a set of temporary tables for each Duplicate Merge Manager user so that each user can perform duplicate group tasks individually. The following temporary tables are created when a Duplicate Merge Manager session is started, and are deleted when the session is closed:
■ ##Duplicate_hh_mm_ss_ms
■ ##Duplicate_Group_hh_mm_ss_ms
■ ##Duplicate_Keys_hh_mm_ss_ms
Each temporary table is exclusive to the individual user’s current Duplicate Merge Manager session and is named using a unique, variable timestamp in the format hh_mm_ss_ms, where hh is hours, mm is minutes, ss is seconds, and ms is milliseconds. The data in the temporary tables is overwritten each time the Find Duplicates process is run.
Duplicate groups stored in the temporary tables can be managed and merged in the current Duplicate Merge Manager session, or the groups can be saved to the permanent tables so that the groups can be managed and merged in a later Duplicate Merge Manager session. Any duplicate groups that are not saved to the permanent tables will no longer exist when the current Duplicate Merge Manager session is ended.
When a duplicate group is saved, the group data is moved from the temporary tables to the following permanent tables:
■ Duplicate
■ Duplicate_Group
The merge actions for saved duplicate groups are performed in the order that the groups were saved. Because of Duplicate Merge Manager’s multiple-user functionality, it is possible for two or more users to create multiple duplicate groups during their own Duplicate Merge Manager sessions that contain one or more of the same IDs. If more than one duplicate group contains the same ID when a Merge operation is performed, the merge actions for the second group (and any subsequent groups) may not be performed completely. For example, if the Retain ID for the second group was deleted during the merge actions for the first group, the merge actions for the second group (which contains the previously deleted Retain ID) will not be performed. You should review all saved duplicate groups for accuracy and any conflicts before performing the Merge operation.