I have made some of my own source templates in one RM11 file. I want to import them to another RM11 file. I also want to copy some of the sources over.
I use ‘import data’ in the new file.
The Source template transfers over OK.
But the source, when opened in the new file, says it uses a different ‘Source Type’. It says it has the correct Master Source but the template it offers is for a different source template. How can I change which Source Type is associated with the source which has been imported?
I just did a test. I just copied over the sources and the template was changed. What I did was a 2 step import. I imported the templates and then went back and imported the sources.
I tried importing them at the same time but none of the sources had any information in them.
Thank you. I tried this method but it didn’t work. I think the problem is that the both databases have user-created templates and the IDs have not transferred over. I thought it was going to be successful but no. Thanks again for your efforts.
I wrote a typically long winded response to your question, and then deleted it before posting because the length got out of hand. The essence of my answer was that importing Sources and Source Templates only works for new citations you create from sources after the import of Sources, and only works for new sources you create from Source Templates after the import of Source templates. The imported items have no effect on any existing data in RM. That’s why you can’t import Sources and Source Templates, and then import the people that use those Sources and Source Templates. You have to bring them in all together.
So bringing in People, Sources, and Source Templates all together as already suggested does work a lot better. The Sources and Source Templates do stay with the imported people just fine, and can be used for any new people you enter by hand. But they are not applied to any newly imported people. Any newly imported people can come in with Sources and Sources Templates of their own. This can create duplicate Sources and Duplicate Source Templates. The duplicate Sources can be merged. The duplicate Source Templates cannot be merged,
The lesson is that if you going to import a bunch of people along with their Sources and Source Templates, do all the people in the same import. Do not break the import into smaller batches of people. The merge of duplicate Sources does work just fine. The lack of a merge for duplicate Source Templates is a real killer.
Thanks very much for your efforts and explanation. The importing of people wasn’t the important thing - it was the source templates I needed.
I followed your explanation and have successfully imported the templates. Then - the bit I missed - I created a new source using that template and everything was OK.
The source template when imported, although having the same name as an existing one, didn’t overwrite the existing one - that was what I had feared.
The difficulty was caused by my having a Sandtray database where I developed templates and sources and then having the difficulty of importing these altered templates back into my main database.
As you say - not being able to merge templates is the problem.
Anyway, thanks to you all, I now have the situation under control.
When I have encountered this problem, I have merged the duplicate source templates using an SQLite script. But doing so is a fraught process that requires programming skills and which is not supported by RM and which is strongly recommended against by RM. RM already supports merging duplicate Sources. It needs also to support merging duplicate source templates.
It’s interesting that this problem only affects custom source templates (AKA user defined source templates). The free form source template cannot become duplicated, nor can RM’s own built-in source templates.
