Upon completion of a merge operation, a Merge Results dialog is displayed listing:
- The number of files E-Merge attempted to merge into the target file during the current merge operation
- The number of those files successfully merged
- The number of files which were not successfully merged into the target file
In addition, the Merge Log view lists a detailed summary of the merge operation, including:
- The number of source files E-Merge attempted to merge into the target file during the current operation
- The number of those files successfully merged
- The number of files which were not successfully merged into the target file.
The Merge Log view lists each action performed during a merge operation. If a target file is created, a message indicating the creation of the file and the name of the file (including the entire file path) are displayed in the Merge Log view.
If an existing target file is named in the operation, a message is displayed indicating the target file has been updated.
Each source file used in the merge operation is listed in the Merge Log view, with a description of any conflict or warning encountered while that file was being merged and the course of action taken as a result of the conflict. If no conflict is encountered, the Merge Log view simply displays a “File Merged” message.
After each merge operation, the columns in the File List view are updated according to the results of the merge operation. The Status column lists the current status of each E-Prime data file as either Single Session (for *.edat3 files) or Merged Data (for *.emrg3 files). When a merged data file is set as the target for a merge operation, the status for that file is changed to TARGET until the E-Merge application is closed or until another target is set.
The Last Merged, Last Modified, and Created columns are updated to reflect any changes occurring as a result of a merge operation. For example, the merging of a single session file into a target file would update the Last Merged column information for the source file (single session), and update the Last Modified column information for the target file to be the current date and time. If the target file had been created during the merge operation, the Created column would be updated to reflect this.
The icons to the left of the filenames are also modified according to any merge operations. The icon for an unmerged single session data file (collected using E-Run) is a single page displaying the E-Prime logo. After an E-Prime single session data file has been merged to another file, the icon is changed to display a green checkmark on the E-Prime logo. The icon for a merged data file is an E-Prime logo on multiple pages. The icon for a file set as the target file receives a bulls- eye on top of the E-Prime logo.
Copying Merge Results
The text in the Merge Log view may be copied and pasted to another application in order to save the detailed results from a merge operation. To copy text to the clipboard, highlight the desired text, and then simultaneously press the Ctrl+C keys. Once copied to the clipboard, the text may be pasted into a text editor.
Undo Merge
E-Merge supports one level of undo so that only the most current operation may be undone. After a merge operation is performed, it may be undone until another merge operation is performed, or until the application is closed. The most recent merge operation may be reversed (i.e., negated) using the Undo Merge tool button, or the Undo Merge command from the Edit menu.
If a merge operation that cannot be undone is attempted, a warning is displayed prior to the completion of the merge operation, and the merge operation may be cancelled.
When a merge operation is undone, the files and icons return to the status maintained prior to the merge operation. For example, if an unmerged file is included in a merge operation, the file would then be classified as “already merged”, and the icon for that file would receive a green checkmark. If the merge operation is subsequently undone, the file status would return to “unmerged”, and the green checkmark would be removed from the icon. In addition, the “Merge operation undone” message would be displayed in the Merge Log.
Merge Input History
The Merge Input History for a particular file indicates which sessions of data have been merged into that file. To view the Merge Input History for a file, use the Properties tool button on the toolbar or the Properties command under the File menu to display the Properties dialog. In the Properties dialog, select the Merge Input History tab to bring this tab to the front.
The input history is listed per file rather than per session. Therefore, although a merged file may bring in more than one session of data in the process of being merged to a target file, only the source file (i.e., the merged file) would be listed on the Merge Input History tab. To view the individual sessions of data imported with a merged data file, select the merged data file on the Merge Input History tab and click the Details button. The individual sessions of data included within that merged file (and therefore merged into the target file) will be displayed.
Merge Output History
The Merge Output History for a particular file indicates the files to which the selected file has been merged. To view the Merge Output History for a file, select the file in the File List view and use the Properties tool button on the toolbar, or the Properties command under the File menu to display the Properties dialog. In the Properties dialog, select the Merge Output History tab to bring this tab to the front.
The output history is listed per file rather than per session. Therefore, the Merge Output History tab for a merged data file would not list the individual sessions of data contained within that merged data file. To view the individual sessions contained within a merged data file (and therefore output to the target file), select the data file on the Merged Output History tab, and click the Details button. The individual sessions of data included within the merged file will be displayed.
Security Levels
The E-DataAid application offers a security feature allowing a user to set security options when supplying a valid password. For example, in E-DataAid, a user may set the security options to disallow edits to subject and session number, or to disallow all edits. When a source file containing a variable with a certain security level is merged into a target file containing the same variable with a different security level, the variable in the target file will have the security level that is the stricter of the two files upon completion of the merge operation.
The Admin Open command is used to open a data file as an Administrator, which permits access to security settings. Once a file is opened by an Administrator, security restrictions for that file may be set using the File Security command on the File menu. Refer to the article E-DATAAID: Variable Settings [22829] for information pertaining to security restrictions.
Annotations (E-Merge)
Annotations are comments or short descriptions of actions performed on a file, such as merging or editing. For example, if a source file is merged into a target file, an annotation is written to the source file indicating the file into which the session of data was merged. This information may be retrieved by examining the source file’s merge output history, which is accessed by double- clicking the file name and selecting the Merge Output History tab from the Properties dialog. In addition, E-Merge writes an annotation to the target file indicating the source from which the data was merged. This information may be retrieved by examining the target file’s merge input history, which is accessed by double-clicking the file name and selecting the Merge Input History tab from the Properties dialog.
Annotations may be stored at the session level (as is the case with annotations relating to merge operations) or globally (as is the case with annotations relating to the renaming of variables). In most cases when a session is merged from a source file to a target file, the annotation is merged as well. When a source file contains global annotations, the global annotations are merged into the target file during the merge operation. In the target file, E-Merge appends the source file name in parentheses to the end of the global annotation being merged. This alerts the user that the global annotation originated in another file.
The exception to this involves annotations relating to merge operations. While an annotation for each merge operation is written to both the source file and the target file (as described above), annotations concerning previous merge operations are not carried from the source file to the target file during subsequent merge operations. The reason for this is that, in most cases, information concerning previous merge operations is relevant only to the source file, and therefore it is not necessary to record it in the target file.
Review Merge History
For single .edat3 files, the file names convey information about the contents of the data files, as do the Experiment, Subject, and Session columns in the File List view. However, as illustrated in the image below, the contents of an .emrg3 file cannot be determined simply by looking at the name of the file or the File List view.
One way to determine the contents of an .emrg3 file is to open it in E-DataAid. To open a file in E-DataAid while in E-Merge, right-click on the filename and select the Open command. Alternatively, the Properties command may be used to obtain information about a file without actually opening the file. This command displays four tabbed-pages containing summary information about the selected file.
To view the contents of the file quickly, select the Contents tab. This page lists the contents of the data file by Subject Number, Session Number, and Experiment Name. The list may be sorted by clicking any column header (e.g., to sort by Participant number, click the Participant column header).
To view the files that have been merged into the file, select the Merge Input History tab, listing all of the files merged into the selected file in the order in which they were merged. To see the entire file name, simply rest the cursor on the name. To view the sessions that a file contained when it was merged, select the file in the list and click the Details button. To see if the selected file was ever merged into any other files, click on the Merge Output History tab. This page lists all files into which this particular file was merged.
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