Bug 34200 - Lists and merge catalog records
Summary: Lists and merge catalog records
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: Koha
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Cataloging (show other bugs)
Version: Main
Hardware: All All
: P5 - low normal
Assignee: Bugs List
QA Contact: Testopia
URL:
Keywords:
: 35550 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2023-07-05 10:12 UTC by Klas Blomberg
Modified: 2024-10-08 07:31 UTC (History)
7 users (show)

See Also:
Change sponsored?: ---
Patch complexity: ---
Documentation contact:
Documentation submission:
Text to go in the release notes:
Version(s) released in:
Circulation function:


Attachments

Note You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.
Description Klas Blomberg 2023-07-05 10:12:36 UTC
Merge merge two catalogue records that are added to different lists.

The resulting merged record will be included only in the list of the master record, and not in the list of the deleted record.

The same thing applies also when the master record is not included in any list, but the deleted record were in a list. In that case the merged record will not be included in any list
Comment 1 Jonathan Druart 2023-07-05 11:55:10 UTC
We are actually not doing anything special with lists when we merge catalogue records. The original record is kept and so the link is preserved. I am not sure what would be a correct fix here, neither if this is a bug.

Marcel, Katrin, any thoughts about this?
Comment 2 Andrew Fuerste-Henry 2023-07-05 14:25:52 UTC
I think the merge interface should include something to show which list(s) each of  the merging records are included in and ask which of those lists the retained record should be in after the merge? It could default to assuming you'll only maintain the lists for the main record, but allow one to check boxes to include the other records' lists as well.
That seems most consistent with the rest of the merge process, in which we start with the assumption of just maintaining the main record, but allow a lot of leeway to pick and choose which parts of which records are maintained.
Comment 3 Marcel de Rooy 2023-07-06 05:37:34 UTC
(In reply to Jonathan Druart from comment #1)
> We are actually not doing anything special with lists when we merge
> catalogue records. The original record is kept and so the link is preserved.
> I am not sure what would be a correct fix here, neither if this is a bug.
> 
> Marcel, Katrin, any thoughts about this?

Current behavior is not a bug. Just a logical consequence of merging.
Comment 4 Phil Ringnalda 2023-07-06 23:24:12 UTC
Gotta have every possible opinion on it ;)

Being in a list is more like items: while merging bibs, we don't ask you whether you want to move the items or throw them away, nor do we throw some of them away without mentioning it, we just move them to the kept record.

Or, like being in an acq order.
Comment 5 Andrew Fuerste-Henry 2023-07-07 13:52:26 UTC
(In reply to Phil Ringnalda from comment #4)
> Gotta have every possible opinion on it ;)
> 
> Being in a list is more like items: while merging bibs, we don't ask you
> whether you want to move the items or throw them away, nor do we throw some
> of them away without mentioning it, we just move them to the kept record.
> 
> Or, like being in an acq order.

I should clarify: a mechanism to select which lists to keep when merging records would be ideal. But in the absence of such a list, I'd rather see the final merged record kept in *all* lists that the pre-merged records were in. That seems more likely to be the desired outcome more often than simply keeping the lists from the main record. Further, in the cases where keeping all lists was not the desired outcome, it's relatively easy to correct. Re-adding a record to one or more lists from which it was silently dropped would be more difficult.

In other words, I think there's a bug here, a merged record *should* be kept in all lists that previously contained the records that have been merged.

And then there's room for an enhancement to make that behavior more flexible.
Comment 6 Manos PETRIDIS 2023-07-07 14:27:37 UTC
Current behaviour is an incomplete merge, as the resultant entry doesn't have the union of the initial entries' attributes and relations. See also bug 31181.
Comment 7 Katrin Fischer 2023-07-08 12:13:13 UTC
My first reaction was also to say that this is not a bug, but an enh. But I see where people are coming from: when we merge records, we move items, holds, acq orders... is there a reason to not move the lists? User expectation seems to be different and that makes me lean more towards a bug.
Comment 8 Andrew Fuerste-Henry 2023-12-13 17:07:33 UTC
*** Bug 35550 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 9 Andrew Fuerste-Henry 2023-12-13 17:08:15 UTC
Kicking this up to "normal" severity based on conversation with users.
Comment 10 Christopher Brannon 2024-01-03 21:17:21 UTC
I agree that this is an incomplete merge, and is a bug.  It is definitely not a desired (and I doubt intended) result.
Comment 11 Christopher Brannon 2024-10-04 22:12:27 UTC
Wondering if this could get a second look.