Merging duplicate children

[Lauren]

You may have children in your setting who have been accidentally added to your Tapestry account twice, or you may have transferred a Tapestry journal from a child's old setting after creating one for them yourself, leading to two profiles existing on your account.

In these cases you can use the Merge Children feature to combine these two children into one, which is much quicker than trying to manually transfer observations between children, and also allows you to keep reports. This tutorial explains how to merge 2 records, but if you have 3 or more duplicates, simply repeat the process again after merging 2 of the records.

While the process does only take a few clicks to complete, it's worth taking the time to understand it fully, as it is possible to merge the wrong children together, or not keep all the information you were intending to keep if you select the wrong version of the child as the 'target' of the merge.

While you can't undo a merge yourself, it's possible for our support team to undo the merge if you make a mistake. So please contact customer.service@eyfs.info if you believe this has happened. Please let us know the children involved, and the time of the merge.

 

Before we begin, a quick note on terminology, and what information is actually merged.

 

Source Child

The Source Child is the version of the child who you don't want to keep permanently, you just want observations and other records transferred to the other version of the child, and the Source Child is the child who will be deleted from Tapestry when the merge is completed.

We recommend selecting as the Source Child, the child with the fewest observations or least amount of work added to them, though it's up to you which one you think is best to have as the Source Child.

To select your Source Child, you will need to head to your Control Panel and select 'Manage Children'. The process of merging the accounts will begin once you click on the cog icon next to the Source Child and select 'Merge With Another Child'.

 

Target Child

The Target Child is the version of the child who you want to keep permanently. You want the existing records from the Source Child added to the Target Child. The Target Child will be the only version of the child that remains after the merge (excluding any further duplicates that exist).

Usually the Target Child will have had more observations or other work added to their profile, but which one you select is up to you.

The important thing is that the Target Child has priority if there are two contradictory data sets. If Tapestry can only choose one, it will chose the version assigned to the Target Child. More details on this below:
 

What information is merged?

• Observations: All of the observations attached to the Source Child are detached and then attached to the Target Child.
   
• Snapshot overrides and locked values: This is done on a period by period basis, and can be a little complicated. If the Target Child has any Snapshot overrides or locked values in a particular period, then any data from the Source Child is ignored for that period. If the Target Child has no data in that period then any locked value or overrides are transferred. If the Source Child's snapshot is locked then the Target Child's snapshot will become locked too. This means that it's important to choose as a Target Child, the version who has up to date overrides or locked values.
   
• Reports: Reports assigned to the Source Child are detached and then attached to the Target Child
   
• All About Me: If both children have a filled in or partially filled in All About Me page, the data is not transferred; if only the Target Child has one, no data is transferred; if only the Source Child has one, it is transferred to the Target Child.
   
• Relatives: They will all be detached from the Source Child. If the Target Child is already attached to a relative, this remains unchanged including the nature of the relationship and parental responsibility. If the Target Child is not already attached to a relative, they are attached and the nature of the relationship and parent responsibility are copied from the Source Child's relationship.
   
• Key workers are merged: If both versions of the child have different key workers they will both be assigned to the Target Child
   
• Group memberships are merged. The Target Child will become a member of any groups the Source Child was added to and retain their existing groups.
   
• No properties of the child (name, DOB, EAL, SEN, profile photo) are merged. The Source Child will remain unchanged in this respect.

 

So, now we've covered the terminology and what information is merged, let's get on to how to actually merge children! 

 

How to merge children

A child merge is something only a Tapestry manager may do, so firstly you must login at https://tapestryjournal.com/ using manager login details.

Then open the Control Panel (1) and go to the 'Manage Children' section (2). You can either find the child you would like to merge by scrolling through the list of children, or search for their name specifically using the search bar (3).

 

 

As we have located both versions of the child, the important thing to do is to work out which version should be the Source Child and which version should be the Target Child. Usually you want the most 'complete' version of the child to be your Target Child, but this may vary.

In this case the version with the photo will be the Target Child, as it makes it easier to tell them apart for this tutorial. Though, in your case, both versions or neither version of the child may have a photo, or you may designate a version without a photo as the Target Child.

 

 

Once you have decided, click the cog icon by the Source Child (1) to open up the drop down menu and select 'Merge With Another' (2). At this stage you don't choose who the Target Child will be, so there is no need to tick any of the boxes to select other children.

 

 

Now you are on the Merge Children page. You can see the Source Child you started the merge with (1) and a section that shows what information your Source Child will be merging (2). You'll also see that the section for the Target Child is empty, just click on 'Change' (3) to add the Target Child.

 

 

A pop-up menu will appear that shows a searchable list of your children. You may notice a 'greyed out' version of your child in the list. This is the version of your child that is currently set as the 'Source Child', so they cannot be chosen again. The non greyed out child is the one you want, and who I have selected. Once you have the correct child selected, press 'Submit'. 

 

 

Once you have added the Target Child you are almost ready to merge. It's worth taking a moment to double check everything is correct before merging. Remember, you cannot undo a merge yourself, and will need to contact Tapestry support for assistance if you make a mistake.

If you find that you have the wrong Source Child or Target Child, press (1) or (2) to change those. If you would like to swap which child is the Target Child and which child is the Source Child press (3).

If you are satisfied and ready, press 'Merge' (4) to complete the merge. There will be a final confirmation popup which you should select 'OK' on to continue, or 'Cancel' to cancel the Merge.
 

 

The merge should be completed relatively quickly, and you will then be taken to the child overview page for the Target child, and see a green message informing you the merge was completed.

 

 

That should cover everything, but if you do have any problems or have any questions please contact us at customer.service@eyfs.info.

 

 

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