Three Pane Merge Window Help, JPriseMerge Help

This is the view of the Three-Pane Merge Window where much of the key work gets done. There are three panels showing data from from the users GEDCOM databases. The left most panel shows data from the base file, the right panel shows data from the merge source file, and the middle panel shows the data in the merge output file. These panels are laid out in a side by side fashion so that the user can rapidly find differences and make decisions about what data needs to be merged, from which data base, into the new merge output file. This is the essence of the job the user does in this window, to pick and choose data from the two source files and to put/merge this into the new merge output file. None of the data in either the base file, or the merge source file will or can be changed in any of these operations.

The layout

Just like the individual detail views in the Matching Window, each column is in tree or outline form using indentation to show what contains what. It is assumed the reader is already familiar with this organization and we will not reiterate the details here. If not, please read the documentation on the individual detail views in the Matching Window. However, there are some additional details.

Whenever the Three-Pane Merge Window is opened to one of its views, JPriseMerge automatically scans for differences between the base file and the merge output file, or the merge source file and the merge output file. If it finds that there is a difference in the data being showed in a data panel, then it marks it. The tree indicator button is colored red if there are differences that might need resolution.

Each of the data panels in the middle panel also contain a checkbox. As you merge data into the middle panel, this check box is available for you to indicate that you have resolved the differences to your satisfaction. Simply click on the box to check it, and JPriseMerge will remember the status of that check from one session to the next whenever you restart JPriseMerge and/or revisit this particular panel. In this way you can keep track of and remember whether you have examined or merged in that data. If the tree indicator button was marked red, showing there was a difference, then JPriseMerge will remove the red color also, when you check these boxes.

The data in these three columns is vertically aligned for easy comparison and editing. Where necessary, empty data panels are inserted to keep this alignment. (shown above) An empty data panel is like an empty folder and is just a place holder. You probably will want to fill these in by merging in data from the panel which actually holds real data, if the empty data panel is in the middle panel for the merge output file.

To further facilitate the users understanding these three columns/panels always scroll together.

Doing the Merge

Each item in the left and right lists is an active button. Pressing a button will move the data that button represents to the center column and into the merge output file. If you click on a container data panel or a title data panel then ALL the data nested inside/below the selected data button below, it will also be moved. Moving all the data from the merge source file to the merge output file for this page can be done by selecting the top data panel button on the right column. If you accidentally overwrite some data that you wanted to keep, you can click on the corresponding data panel from the other source data column

Finding Needed Work

Merging People

It is important to understand that any data panel which shows an individual, such as a child of a family, then that data panel represents a GEDCOM reference element. When you ask JPriseMerge to merge in an individual from one of your source databases, into the merge output file, JPriseMerge first gathers up all the information about that individual from your source database. Unless you have previously marked this individual as a match with an individual in your merge output file, see Recording Matches), then JPriseMerge automatically searches for any possible matching individuals in the merge output file. Here again, JPriseMerge uses its powerful matching logic to compute probabilities of likely matches.

When JPriseMerge is finished looking for possible matches, to the selected individual that is being merged in, it presents you with a Match Selection dialog box much like that shown above. At the top it shows the indentity of the selected individual and which column it came from. In the middle it presents a list of buttons for the possible matches that were found. To help identify individuals, both the individuals name and birth year are shown, along with the computed probability and matching elements ratios.

Selecting one of these buttons tells JPriseMerge to use that individuals GEDCOM record element (in the merge output file) as the target of the reference element being replaced by this merge operation. Essentially, doing this tells JPriseMerge that there is a match between the individual being merged in from your source data file, with one already in the merge output file, and JPriseMerge will mark the individuals as matched and add him/her to the list of matched individuals in the People Progress Manager Window.

If however, none of the individuals shown, correspond to the individual you are merging in, then select the New button at the bottom of the Match Selection dialog box. JPriseMerge will then create a new individual record element in the merge output file database. As much of the static information, (personal name(s), birth dates and simple events and attributes etc. ), as possible, is then copied from the source data base into the new individual's record element. However, and this is important to understand, none of the child elements of the individual which are reference elements, (for example, families, note references, parents, spouses, children, etc. ) will be copied/merged in automatically from the source data base into the merge output file. The new individual will be added to the list of matched individuals in the People Progress Manager Window but not marked as completed. This means you will still have to go to that new individual, at some point, and resolve his/her reference elements as needed.

JPriseMerge will do as much back linking as possible also, automatically. To understand this concept, lets use an example. Lets say we are working with an individual - John. John has a spouse named Mary. Suppose we are adding/merging in a new child - Susie to the family record formed for John and Mary. Not only will JPriseMerge install Susie as a child of both John and Mary, but it will automatically set up the new individual record element for Susie so that the references to her parents, John and Mary are filled in. Likewise if we were adding in a new parent individual then JPriseMerge will handle the back linking so that the new parent also knows who their child is. This is the only form of automatic reference resolving that JPriseMerge can do, and it will save you a lot of time an confusion.

If you accidentally clicked on an individual and decided you didn't really mean to, when the Match Selection window opens, simply click on the Skip Step button at the bottom, and that will abort the merge operation and restore everything back.

Other Shared/Linked/Reference Data

There are many kinds of data that are stored in GEDCOM files such that it can be re-used in many places without copying it over. Individuals, Families, Sources, Notes, Events, and other GEDCOM element types are stored this way. (see description of record elements and reference elements in the Matching Window help document) If such an item is being merged from the merge source file to the merge output file you will be asked if it is new or the same as an old one, as is done for Individuals in Merging People above.

If you decide to merge whole elements at once, by clicking on a title data panel, or whole containers by clicking on a container data panel, JPriseMerge will automatically step through all the child element's data panels, one by one, and perform a merge operation on each as if you had clicked on them individually. This means that each time it encounters a data panel for a reference element, then JPriseMerge will search for possible matching records in the merge output file and bring up the Match Selection window for each., So be prepared for quite a bit of interactive when you do this.

Manual Alignment

To make the merge operations easy, JPriseMerge attempts to keep the data panels in alignment with each other, in the different columns for each data base. Sometimes this requires JPriseMerge is add empty data panels in one of the columns. In this way, when you click on a data panel in say the column for the merge source file, you can visually see what panel in the middle merge output file column will be replaced with the new data. Sometimes, however, JPriseMerge may not be able to get this alignment quite right (we are working to improve this!) so it may require a bit of help from you the user.

By placing the cursor over a data panel, the right-click-pop-up menu provides the ability to do the following operations in all columns to achieve the correct alignment. This new alignment information will be saved in the project file so that it will not need to be repeated, even if you have to revisit this page over separate sessions. (This does not affect, in any way, the actual data of your base file or merge source file.)

To understand why user intervention is sometimes necessary to help out with alignment of data panels, lets look at a couple of scenarios. Lets say we are wanting to merge in children of a family, for example. The base file shows the family has one child, David, and the merge source file also shows this family has one child Sara. Both of these source data bases are incomplete because in actual fact the family has two children. JPriseMerge has no way of KNOWING this ahead of time, so when it displays the Three Pane Merge window for this family, it will only show the family as having one child. And that since they are different it will indicate that this needs to be resolved. Therefore the two child data panels will initially be in alignment with each other. Clicking on Sara to merge her into the middle merge output file would result in an unsatisfactory solution since that would not add Sara, but replace David with Sara. So, to get around this, we need to add an empty data panel above David, in the middle column for the merge output file. When the empty panel is added, above David's panel, JPriseMerge will also automatically add empty panels into the columns for the base file, and merge source file, so as to keep the alignments correct. However, it still may not get it exactly right, and we may have to use the Move Up or Move Down buttons so as to align all the "David panels" up with each other, and the "Sara panel" up with the new empty data panel. Once we have accomplished that, then Sara can be merge in, to replace the empty data panel in the middle column, just like any other merge operation.

Another scenario might be, a collection of notes are defined for some event. Both the base file and the merge source file may have the same number of notes defined for that event, but JPriseMerge may have been unable to figure out which note corresponds to which note when it listed them. So again, you the user may have to move them around, manually aligning them up with each other, before attempting to carry out your merges.

Touching Up / Manual Editing

Sometimes you may decide that you got the right information but it isn't spelled right or capitalized right or some similar problem. The right-click-pop-up menu for the merge output file data panels (shown above) allows you to call up a text editor to make small corrections.

Three Pane Merge Window