Case Merge

About the Merge Operation

When you merge two cases, you combine them into one record, to reduce duplication. (This option exists only for Cases object.)

When you merge cases, you have two options:

• A one-click "standard" merge that does everything automatically
• An advanced merge that gives you more fine-grained control over the merge process

Note: The merge includes all fields defined for the object, not just those that are displayed onscreen.

Working with the Merge Operation

In order to merge cases, Users must have Update permission for the object in Access to Records Owned by Others Within the Team and Delete permission for the object in Record Access Permissions

To merge two cases:

1. Click the Cases tab.
   A list of cases is displayed.
2. Select a case
3. In the sidebar, click Actions
4. Choose the Merge option
5. Select the record to merge with (the target record)
6. Optionally, click Advanced Merge to get more control over the merge process.
7. Click [Merge] to complete the operation.

Standard Merge

With the standard (non-advanced) merge:

• The current record is moved to the recycle bin.
• The target record appears in the UI, with its fields unchanged.

(If needed, values from fields in the old record can be retrieved from the recycle bin.)

• The summary and description from the current record are added to the target-record’s activity history.
• The current record’s activity history is added to the target record.
• The target record's processes and their tasks are retained. The current record's processes are discarded.
• The target record's SLAs and any tasks that stemmed from them are retained. Those in the current record are discarded. Tasks that stemmed from those processes are added to the target record.
• Manually-defined tasks from the target record are retained. Similar tasks created for the current record are added to the target record. The owner of the target record becomes the owner of those tasks.
• Attachments from the current record are added to the target record.
• Hours logged against the current record are added to the target record.

Advanced Merge

AgileApps had the Standard and Advanced Case Merge feature where in both the cases, the source case record was deleted after the merge operations. In this release, we have made some changes to the Advanced Merge to allow for source record to be retained after the merge, for later referral.

Old behavior of Advanced Merge

When you click Advanced Merge, additional tabs appear:

• Fields

"Read-only fields" (whose values can be set only by the system), and fields that are hidden based on the user's Role are not displayed. The target record's values are retained.

Other field values from source and target records are displayed. Choose which ones to use. (Target-record values are the default.)

For fields containing text or rich text, an additional Append option appears.

When that option is chosen, the text in the source field is appended to the text in the target field.

• Tasks

A list of single-step tasks that were manually added to the current record is displayed.

By default, all of them are added to the merged record. Unclick any you do not want.

Those selected are added to the target record. The target record's owner becomes their owner.

Process tasks, tasks created by SLAs, and multi-step tasks are not shown. Any such tasks defined for the target record are retained. Any defined for the current record are deleted.

Then, when you click [Merge]:

• The current record is moved to the recycle bin.
• The target record appears in the UI, with the field values that were selected.
• The current record’s activity history is added to the target record.
• The target record's processes and their states are retained. Those in the current record are discarded.
• The target record's SLAs and their states are retained. Those in the current record are discarded.
• Attachments from the current record are added to the target record.
• Hours logged against the current record are added to the target record.

New behavior of Advanced Merge

The new behavior introduces an extended object-level capability to the user where she can configure whether the source case record should be deleted or retained during the Case Merge operation.

Important points to note:

• This feature is available for Service Desk and Dynamic Case management applications only.
• The system introduces an additional configuration for each Case & CaseType object under the corresponding object-properties. This configuration will be made available only when user selects Advanced Case Merge option in Case Merge dialog.
• The Case & CaseType object properties will now have 'Delete source case' and 'Retain source case' radio buttons under > {object} > Object Properties> Merge Settings section as 'After Advanced Case Merge' option.
• When any new Case/CaseType object is created, the default selection for the above will be 'Delete source case'- the source case record will be deleted during the Merge operation.
• The configuration must be changed manually in the corresponding object-properties if the user wants to retain the source case record.
• The System has reserved field Ids starting with 'wmaac' and 'wmaac_'. The System has also reserved Case Status global picklist options starting with 'wmaac' and 'wmaac_'. If the user tries to create field Ids, or global picklist options for case Status starting with these reserved keywords, an error alert will be shown on to the screen, preventing the operation.
• 'Merged' Case status has been introduced, it will be an option in the Case Status Global picklist field.
• Value for this option is 'wmaac_merged', its label can be changed with the Global picklist edit option.
• This status option will not be available in the status picklist in any Case/CaseType object forms during add/edit operation. This will be shown only if the Source case record is already in the Merged State.
• Status of any Case record cannot be changed to merged through any means like UI, Java API, REST API, Processes, Mass Updates, Macros etc. It can be done only by the System during Merge Operation.

Flow under the new behavior:

• The user opens a record to perform the Merge operation, selects Merge (under ACTIONS).

• Closed and Merged Record cannot be selected as destination record in the 'Select a record to merge to' lookup field.
• User selects a destination record and selects Advanced Merge option. User will have ability to select fields and tasks. User clicks on Merge button.

• The selected fields' contents are merged as per the user's selection.
• The selected tasks are moved to the Destination Case Record as the user's selection.
• The Source Case record status is changed to 'Merged' by the System.
• The Source Case record's MergedTo field is updated and contains the Destination Case record's Case-Number as link.
• MERGED TO section is visible in Source Case record and it will show the Destination Case record's Case-number as link.
• An entry is added in Source Case record Activity History as 'Information from case A is merged with case B'.
• On click on the link in MergedTo field or MERGED TO section, System redirects the user to the Destination Case record.