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Bob Greiner

merging sources from different projects

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Is there a way to import the Master Source List from one project into an existing project?

 

I have just updated a V6 database to V7. I haven't updated it for quite a while, so my source citations are not very recent. I have another database that I have worked on recently. It has many more source definitions that have been updated and cleaned up. I would like to be able to import or merge these newer source definitions into the older project. Is there a way to do that? Would there be a conflict with the numbering of the sources, or would the newly imported sources be assigned open source numbers? The two databases are for separate families, so they have totally different sets of people and places.

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There is an Export/Import fuction on the Master Source List that should do the job for you. You would export them from one Data Set and them import them to the other. Click on the Help button on that screen for details.

 

I assumed here you mean you want to transfer the individual source definitions. If you actually mean the Source Types, there is a similar function for that. I've got an article that describes that on my website.

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Terry,

 

I tried this, and I certainly was able to export Source Types and the Master Source List from one project in V7 and then import them into another project. However, I discovered that many, if not all, of the items in the MSL are now linked to the wrong source type. I suspect this has something to do with the way the source types are indexed and how the MSL entries are linked.

 

Initially, I added all the imported source types as new entries (by adding a name extension). When I first noticed the problem, I suspected that perhaps the indices of the source entries were changed because they were added to the existing list. I then did another test where I imported the source entries and replaced the existing list. After importing the MSL, the entries in the MSL still pointed to incorrect source types.

 

For my purposes, as I reuse one of the imported items from the MSL, I can change the source type manually. However, I expected that after import, the MSL would be linked to the correct source type.

 

Bob

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Bob,

 

What do you mean when you say that the items in the MSL were linked to the "wrong" source types? You mean the existing sources, right? Were they still linked to their orginal source types, or changed to some other source type? Or something else?

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Terry,

 

When I looked at one of the sources that I imported into the MSL, instead of that source pointing to a source type of "church record" as it was originally created, in now pointed to a source type of "dissertation". The other imported sources that I examined were similarly redirected.

 

I guess I expected that if I would import a set of source types (adding them as new ones), then import a set of sources, that those imported sources would point to their original source types. But I don't see how one could expect those associations to be maintained. Thinking about it a bit more, I'm not sure what I should expect.

 

If I import a set of source types and overwrite any existing ones, then import sources, I might expect those sources to point to the right source types. But I tried that experiment and they don't seem to maintain the right links. If I import source types and add them to existing ones, then import sources, I don't see how I could expect those sources to know which source type they should be associated with.

 

I'm not sure if I could replicate a simple example or not.

 

Bob

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Bob,

 

I don't think I ever tested this feature, but I'd expect sources to retain their existing source type (although exactly what that means is not totally clear).

 

I'll play with it and see what I get.

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Bob,

 

I did what I think you did - exported a group of sources from one project, and imported them into another one.

 

When I did, all the imported sources kept their original source types. If the source type in the original project had the same templates as in the new project, the imported source refers to the existing source type in the new project. If the templates were different in the two projects, a copy of the original was added to the new project, with a "1" added to the name to indicate it was different. If the source type didn't exist in the new project, it was copied to it. When custom source elements where used in the original project, they were created in the new one.

 

In short, it all worked as one might hope.

 

So... I don't know why you got different results. :-(

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