ideas are welcome: merging duplicate contacts to 1

Moderators: dwp, devin

Post Reply
camel
Posts: 668
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2011 8:38 pm

ideas are welcome: merging duplicate contacts to 1

Post by camel »

hi,
i'm thinking about a new feature request, to merge or duplicate contacts to 1 contact.
(not binding contacts together - i mean clean merging together, so that there are no duplicates, and also all informations from different account types -> are merging all informations together)

the challenge is:
i have 4 different accounts and in every account i have a contact: "Example Mike"
in 1 account i have name + picture + email address(facebook account) - often the picture is only in facebook or in skype)
in 1 account i have name + phone number + email address(google account)
in 1 account i have name + group + organization + office phone number(Exchange account)
in 1 account i have name + phone number (SIM card)
as you can see in my example - there are a lot of informations, which i want to catch/merge together ...
and i want now: to copy all informations from many contacts(which are looking like duplicates) into 1 contact.

so, the logic must handle:
.) when is a contact existing multiple times ? (or must the user select the contacts manually ?)
.) how to find identically contacts ? or only bind system merged contacts ?
.) what happen if multiple pictures are on selected contacts ?
.) what happen if multiple items will be found ? (multiple mobile numbers) which phone number should be prefered to use for copy to new one ?
.) how should the whole process work ?

so, before i can think about how to make this function we must clearify how the process should be working ...

first idea is:
1.) selelct (multiple-select mode) -> then click on "Merge selected contacts"
2.) select destination account (this means, where all informations will be bring together)
....> then the function should check all informations:
a) read all information (*priority must be defined in code) and choose all informations - related on *priority list
b) ten show a list of all informations - and pre-select (related on *priority list) the informations.
c) user will see the item with all informations and can now decide or change settings - and then press "Save" or "Cancel".
....> if "SAVE" -> then the function should save data to destination (if contact exist there, then add the informations / if not existing, then create new contact + all informations inside)

*Priority: needed for which account type informations wins ?
1.) EAS (the business account, and mostly best maintained)
2.) Google account (mostly email address and self created contacts or imported from another system)
3.) MyPhone (mostly phone numbers are stored in local)
4.) SIM card (mostly only old contacts with old phone numbers, and nothing more, because SIM is very limited)
5.) Facebook (often real picture and real birthday)
6.) Skype (skype user are having mostly wrong birthday dates, so lower priority, and pictures are often fantasie pics)
7.) all other unknown SNS types (LinkedIn, etc..)

well, this could be working for merging some duplicates merging all data together in 1 contact
but, what - if user wants, that function should do all automatically and do this for all contacts in 1 shot ?

any ideas ? ideas are welcome ...
BruceRickey
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2011 2:00 am

Re: ideas are welcome: merging duplicate contacts to 1

Post by BruceRickey »

I have an idea, It would involve some logic and some manual proofing/ selecting to make it work.
Have the program do the following:

compare the list of contacts, the program should take the data fields for first and last names and make a single string. Forget about middle initials as the value but display them if present. However if two contacts have the same first and last names but different middle names they should be treated as unique.
The program should make a column for each duplicate contact with each field for the contact shown below with the data for the field.
The program needs to merge all data fields and make a master field list.
The

Aw heck with the details, what needs to happen is to have each contact name at the top of a column where all the data field for all contacts are under each contact.
The program should be able to tell when each contact was last updated. The newest info becomes the default data. The person running the program can override the programs decision. All the data is migrated into a new master column that is made up of the parts of the various other contacts. The program operator has a accept, skip or reject options that finalizes the action. The program then deletes the old contacts and replaces them with the new merged client.
camel
Posts: 668
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2011 8:38 pm

Re: ideas are welcome: merging duplicate contacts to 1

Post by camel »

BruceRickey wrote:I have an idea, It would involve some logic and some manual proofing/ selecting to make it work.
Have the program do the following:

compare the list of contacts, the program should take the data fields for first and last names and make a single string. Forget about middle initials as the value but display them if present. However if two contacts have the same first and last names but different middle names they should be treated as unique.
The program should make a column for each duplicate contact with each field for the contact shown below with the data for the field.
The program needs to merge all data fields and make a master field list.
The

Aw heck with the details, what needs to happen is to have each contact name at the top of a column where all the data field for all contacts are under each contact.
The program should be able to tell when each contact was last updated. The newest info becomes the default data. The person running the program can override the programs decision. All the data is migrated into a new master column that is made up of the parts of the various other contacts. The program operator has a accept, skip or reject options that finalizes the action. The program then deletes the old contacts and replaces them with the new merged client.
good idea ...
specially - i like the idea, that then will be also an option like: "delete old contacts" ON/OFF (default = OFF) above the "OK" and "Cancel" button.
and with the data fields: yes i think also as you:
1.) selecting 5 contacts
2.) call "merge contacts"
3.) then it shows the list of all fileds + pre-selected the fileds which app will prefer (with logical check, whch one shoild be used)
in this list it shows all names -example:
First name: John X + (account icon)
First name: johnn O + (account icon)
First name: Johnsi O + (account icon)
First name: john O + (account icon)
First name: JoHn O + (account icon)
-------divider line-------------------------
Last name: Denver X + (account icon)
Last name: denver O + (account icon)
Last name: denver O + (account icon)
Last name: denver O + (account icon)
Last name: denver O + (account icon)
-------divider line-------------------------
Picture: (show picture if existing) X + (account icon)
Picture: (show picture if existing) O + (account icon)
Picture: (show picture if existing) O + (account icon)
Picture: (show picture if existing) O + (account icon)
Picture: (show picture if existing) O + (account icon)
and so on ...
-> so user can change the select box (O or X) and in the same contact field type only one can be selected.
-> on bottom: OK / Cancel
5.) popup: selection which destination account type should be used for it
6.) Popup with: "Should i proceed with merging" + option for: "Delete old contacts after merging" (Default = OFF)
OK / Cancel


hope this is ok in this kind ?

we will try to add this to 2.0.8, because then i can also begin to cleanup my contacts :)

cu camel
tyroniius
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Jan 10, 2012 7:39 am

Re: ideas are welcome: merging duplicate contacts to 1

Post by tyroniius »

Hi, I dont want to post in the wrong section, but i have (what i think) is a great idea for a contact manager, where should i post it?
camel
Posts: 668
Joined: Sat Jun 04, 2011 8:38 pm

Re: ideas are welcome: merging duplicate contacts to 1

Post by camel »

tyroniius wrote:Hi, I dont want to post in the wrong section, but i have (what i think) is a great idea for a contact manager, where should i post it?
if it is a feature request - please post on feature requests.
if it is a question - please post it under questions.
(if you post in wrong section - no problem at all (if needed i will move it).
cu camel
Post Reply