Bill, I haven't seen a response to your questions about Intellishare so I'll try to give a brief explanation. I use Intellishare to collaborate with various family researchers on a regular basis. Here are the mechanics of it as I understand it. Others may chime in with a different sense of how it works.
1) Every individual record is assigned a unique string of 32 characters in a text field called Intellishare in the database table called tblIR. The string is not shown on any screen but comes into play with the IntelliMerge function. If you export a Legacy file to GEDCOM and examine it with a text editor, you can find the Intellishare string with the GEDCOM tag "_UID". In the GEDCOM file, another 4 characters are added to the end of the string. I am not sure why because if you import the GEDCOM file back into Legacy, those last 4 characters are dropped. 2) To collaborate with others on the same Legacy database, it is important to consider how the Intellishare values are used. The master version of the database is maintained by a "Keeper" and all other copies of the file must be treated as secondary to the Keeper file. To begin collaborating, a copy of the Keeper file, which includes the Intellishare values in it, is sent to each collaborator. They can work on their copy of the file by adding new records to the file or modifying records already in the file. New records will be assigned new unique Intellishare values. If two collaborators add the exact same person to their copy of the file, there will be a different Intellishare value created for each copy of that person. 3) The keeper should collect the secondary copies of the database on a regular basis and combine them with the master file. A few tips will make this process flow smoothly. First, determine the highest RIN number already in the master file and the highest MRIN number. Let's say the highest RIN is 5489 and the highest MRIN is 3452. Next import a secondary copy of the database into the master file and "Add the Legacy information to the Existing Family File". On the Legacy Import window, set the "Renumber RINs from" and the "MRINs from" to numbers higher than those already in the master file. A good choice for this example would be 10000 for the next new RIN and 10000 for the next new MRIN. These higher numbers will make it easy to identify the incoming records later in the process. You will notice the box "Fill all existing abandoned RINs/MRINs" will automatically be unchecked and grayed-out when you chose to renumber which will keep the RINs/MRINs for the incoming records from being interspersed with the number range being used in the master file. 4) After combining the secondary files with the master, the keeper can execute an IntelliMerge which is under "Special Duplicate Searches". This will combine all records that have the same Intellishare value. Any records that have been modified, will be displayed for the user to make decisions about the merge. Once the merge is complete, you can see which records were not merged because they will still have RINs/MRINs in the higher range that we entered in step 3. Further "Normal Duplicate Search" might be required to accomplish additional merging as necessary. 5) Once the Keeper file has the secondary files merged with it, the Keeper can produce a new secondary copy for each collaborator. Note that the collaborators should not work on their old copy of the file during the time that the Keeper is combining and merging but should wait for the Keeper to send them a fresh copy. Then the cycle repeats. 6) You probably noticed that I did not say that the Keeper or collaborators could delete records. There is a very good reason for this. Before I explain it, you should understand that when two records are merged one of them is deleted...so a merge also deletes. Lets say that a family has children A, B, C. You decide to delete child B in your copy of the database. If the Keeper or another collaborator has child B in their file, after the files are combined you will again have child B. The only way to completely delete child B would be to have that record deleted in every copy of the database. The same thing happens with a merge. If the merge is not done in every copy of the database, then after the files are combined the un-merged records will be back. Two ways to handle the deletion problem. First would be to never delete or merge but keep a list of what needs to be deleted or merged and then have the Keeper do all of them on the master file before it is copied back out to the collaborators. A second method would be to have the deletes and merges done on every copy of the database. The Keeper should probably coordinate this second method to be sure that all copies perform the deletes and merges the same way. Otherwise, the deletes or merges will not have the intended effect on the database. 7) As a general rule, it is best to always merge the higher RIN into the lower RIN so that everyone will perform merges the same way. This is important because not only is the lower RIN preserved after the merge while the higher one is deleted but also the Intellishare value of the lower RIN is preserved. This also plays into how the files are combined. The secondary copies should always be imported into the master, thereby getting the higher RINs/MRINs. If you import the master into the secondary, the RINs/MRINs that all the other copies of the database use may be affected especially if they have been renumbered by the collaborator. You might think of the Intellishare value as an unchangeable RIN that is hidden in the record. 8) The collaborators must work on the secondary copies of the database. If they work on a different file or program and export their data to Legacy for the Keeper to combine, the Keeper will not be happy because the IntelliMerge will not work. Instead the Keeper will have to laboriously merge that data with the master every time versus having the power of the Intellishare values to do most of the work. There are probably many other subtleties with the IntelliMerge process which others will likely mention. If any of the concepts that I've outlined need further explanation or correction, please post a followup message. Ron Taylor --- On Sun, 4/8/12, [email protected] <[email protected]> wrote: > From: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Subject: [LegacyUG] Using IntelliShare > To: [email protected] > Date: Sunday, April 8, 2012, 6:02 PM > Hi, > Now that my family is spread out and we are all working on > family history I > want to start using IntelliShare but I am not clear on how > to start. We > are all using Legacy. > > I will be the "Keeper" and I am not sure how to send the > copies to my > family. Do I use a GEDCOM file or what? > > It says that Legacy will mark all records in the master > file. Is this > something I can see or do I need to bother with it at all? > > Thanks, > > Bill Runolfson > Duvall, Washington > > > > Legacy User Group guidelines: > http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp > Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 > 2009: > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp > Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) > and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). > To unsubscribe: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/LegacyLists.asp > > > Legacy User Group guidelines: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Etiquette.asp Archived messages after Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Archived messages from old mail server - before Nov. 21 2009: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Online technical support: http://www.LegacyFamilyTree.com/Help.asp Follow Legacy on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/LegacyFamilyTree) and on our blog (http://news.LegacyFamilyTree.com). 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