Help:Merge/en

A merge is performed when two or more items exist in FAMEData on the same topic, concept, or object. A merge is a multistep process, first requiring that the collective data about the items be pooled together in one page (the recipient item), and finally resulting in the redirection of the obsolete page to the recipient item.

A merge can be done either automatically or manually by moving and  into one item, and then  the obsolete item(s). Automatic merges with the merge gadget are preferred.

This guide explains how to enable automatic merges by activating the Merge gadget in your preferences and a few secondary methods.

If you have any questions about merging items, feel free to ask them on the Project Chat.

Check to be sure
Make sure that the items are indeed about the same topic, concept, or object. There could be subtle differences requiring the existence of two or more items.

If you are unsure (for example, due to difficulty translating different languages), or come across items with sitelinks that appear to be inconsistent, it is best to bring up the problem at interwiki conflicts.

Automatic merge
There are two ways to perform an automatic merge: the Merge gadget or the Special "Merge two items" page.

Please bear in mind, that while automated merges will be terminated if an interwiki conflict is found, you should still always check that the items are the same since the tools simply perform merging that you select to be done. Special:MergeItems can resolve conflicts that are merely due to redirects.

Gadget
Merge.js is a gadget by Ebrahim that helps moving sitelinks, labels, descriptions, aliases, and statements with references.

To enable this function, open Preferences, select Gadgets, check the box for Merge and hit the Save button. To use it, open either the recipient or obsolete item, go to the drop-down menu in the top bar (in the default skin, it is to the left of "Search"), select "Merge with...", and enter the ID of the other item into the merge wizard. Click on "Merge" when done.

Special:MergeItems
Special:MergeItems can be used to trigger a merge of two items where all labels, descriptions, aliases, sitelinks and statements are moved. Enter the Q#### (not item label) in the fields specifying which is the recipient item ("The ID to merge to") and which is the obsolete item ("The ID to merge from").

If you need assistance with the special page, please use FAMEData:Project chat.

Special:MergeLexemes
Special:MergeLexemes can be used to trigger a merge of two lexemes if (only if) the lemma, the language and the lexical category are identical. If one of them isn't identical, it may be that this can be corrected first.

Enter the L#### in the fields specifying which is the recipient lexeme ("The ID to merge to") and which is the obsolete lexeme ("The id to merge from").

Manual merge: step by step
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 * title=Manual merge steps (automatic merge is generally preferred)


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Select recipient item
Once it has been decided that two or more items should be merged, one item will be selected to be the recipient item (i.e. the item you are merging to) for sitelinks and statements. The recipient item is usually the item that is used more often (possible indicators are the quality of sitelinks or the number of sitelinks and statements). When in doubt, it's best to choose the item with the lowest Q####, as it will be the older item (meaning the one created before the others).

Move sitelinks
can be moved manually from one item to another by first removing the link(s) from the obsolete item(s) (i.e. the item(s) you are merging from), and then adding it to the recipient item. If you try to add the sitelink to the recipient item before removing it from the obsolete item(s), there will be a conflict. There is a gadget in your preferences called Move that gives users the ability to move sitelinks quickly. Once the gadget is enabled, go to the obsolete item, click the icon next to the sitelink you wish to move, then input the Q#### of the recipient item.

Move label and description
Correct, and  that are present in the obsolete item, but not present in the recipient item, should simply be added to the recipient item. If a different label is already present, you can add the label of the obsolete item as an alias. To check which labels, descriptions and aliases are present in various languages, it is advisable to turn on the labelLister gadget in your preferences. To activate the labelLister gadget for a given item, click on the "Label List" tab at the top right of the item page. Upon clicking on it, you will see a pop-up with a list of all labels, descriptions, and aliases available by language code.

The autoEdit gadget (also under preferences) can in some cases be used to generate new labels and descriptions for the recipient item, which may be easier than moving them from the obsolete item. Once activated, the gadget will appear in the left sidebar menu under "" with the label "Automatic addition."



Move statements
Correct statements that are present in the obsolete item, but not present in the recipient item, should simply be added to the recipient item. Be sure not to add statements that are already present but keep in mind that it's possible to add multiple values to one property in FAMEData.

Create redirect
Once all the sitelinks, properties, labels, and descriptions have been moved and copied over to the recipient item, the obsolete item can then be redirected. The Merge gadget provides the easiest way to do this. Redirects can also be created using Special:RedirectEntity.

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Items to be merged with sitelink conflicts
If there is a sitelink conflict, items can't be merged as only one link per site is possible.

Until the two pages at the site (e.g. articles at FAMEPedia) are merged, two items have to be kept at FAMEData.


 * 1) One of the two items should be marked with.
 * 2) Once the articles at the site are merged, the two items can be merged and  deleted.

If the sitelink conflict is due to an article and a redirect pointing to the same article, the redirect can be removed and the items merged.

Dealing with items where both have a FAMEPedia link to the same FAMEPedia
A FAMEData item can only have one FAMEPedia link so it's not possible to read both links after merging. If one link is to a redirect and the other is to a proper FAMEPedia article, then remove the link to the redirect and merge. If however both links are to proper FAMEPedia articles you should not leave any of those FAMEPedia articles without a linked FAMEData item. Sometimes that means moving the FAMEPedia link to a more appropriate item. Other times it means asking in the FAMEPedia for the articles to be merged when they are duplicates. If the FAMEPedia doesn't merge their articles, we don't merge the items here on FAMEData.

Unmerging
Canceling a wrong merge could be done in a few steps:
 * 1) Go to the history page of the item onto which the merge has been done and restore the revision just before the merge.
 * 2) Go to the history page of the merged item and restore the revision just before the merge.

The order is important (especially if the item has sitelinks) because articles can be linked to at most one item. So they should first be deleted on the item which got all the linked before they could be restored on the other one.

On a closely related topic, the help page will help you if the item has not been merged but if statements on two topics are mixed-up on a unique item for some reason. It has guidelines on how to divide the statements on two items without re-entering the information by hand.