Merge Ideas (Parent-Child)

Important Note: This feature is currently in Beta. Please test first with non-critical data, report any issues to support, and post enhancement requests to IdeaSpace.

The "Merge Ideas" feature allows Admins to establish a parent-child relationship between similar or duplicate ideas. All original ideas remain intact and accessible, with parent ideas maintaining the ability for crowd interactions and evaluations, while children will be limited in those regards.

About the Merged Parent-Child Relationship

• A Parent Idea may have any number of Child Ideas
• A Child idea corresponds to a single Parent
• Initially, upon merging, Child Ideas will have their Step and Status synced to the selected Parent
• Voting and comments will be disabled on Child Ideas.
• Child Ideas will have their visibility synced with the Parent Idea.
• Child Ideas will not show in Steps view
• Child Ideas will not trigger action items

Getting Started:

First, make sure the Parent-child Merge Ideas Beta feature is enabled under System Setup > Beta.

To merge ideas:

• Navigate to 'Steps' or 'List' view for your Pipeline
• Select at least two Ideas to merge
• Use the dropdown or right-click menu to access Actions and select Merge Ideas

• When choosing to merge ideas, a Parent idea must be selected.
  • Parent ideas will retain visibility everywhere throughout the platform; they will remain open to crowd engagement and trigger action items
  • Tags from Child ideas will be "rolled up" to the Parent
• Additional ideas can later be merged with existing Parents by selecting a Parent and any number of unmerged ideas

• Individual ideas can be reviewed by clicking the idea code link to open them in a new window
• By default, the oldest idea will be selected as the Parent
• Click 'Merge Ideas' to complete the action; a confirmation will be shown at the top of the screen

Un-Merging Ideas

Merged ideas can be un-merged to break the Parent-Child relationship.  Children that are un-merged will have crowd interactions re-enabled, and will once again begin triggering action items. 

Note: Parent and Child ideas will maintain their current Step and Status. Any automatic changes to Steps or Statuses will not be undone by unmerging.

• To unmerge ideas, navigate to 'Steps' or 'List' view for your activity
• Highlight any number of merged ideas
  • Children can be individually unmerged from their parents
  • If a parent idea is selected to be unmerged, all children of that idea will be unmerged
• Use the dropdown or right-click menu to access 'Actions' and select 'Unmerge Ideas'
• If a Parent idea is deleted, children will be automatically unmerged.

Managing Merged Ideas

• Child ideas are not displayed in Steps view
• Child ideas are displayed in List view and the Innovations Pillar
  • Merged and Merged With columns are available for sorting and data processing
  • These columns will be included in exports from both Steps and List views.

End-user Interaction with Merged Ideas

• There is a pipeline email named Idea Merged that can be used to send notifications to submitters when their ideas are merged with another.

• When viewing a Child idea, end-users can view the Parent idea using the tabs at the top of the View Idea page
  • Users cannot vote or comment on Child ideas
  • All pre-existing votes and comments will remain intact on the Child idea

• When viewing a Parent idea, any merged Child ideas will be displayed as tabs at the top of the View Idea page; users can select the Idea code to view the Child submission.
  • Merged Ideas will be visible based on user permissions for those ideas

• Votes for the Parent Idea will hold true; prior votes on the Child ideas will not affect the Parent idea vote count.
• Child ideas will show in a user's submissions (e.g. on User Home and Profile)
• Child ideas will be searchable
• Child ideas will be shown in Idea Boards  
• For the end user, points & statistics stay the same.  

Evaluator Interaction with Merged Ideas

• Parent ideas will trigger action items and evaluations
• Child ideas will not trigger action items or evaluations 
• Merged ideas will be displayed in tabs at the top of the Idea view on evaluations

Frequently Asked Questions

• I don't see the "Merge" and "Un-merge" action commands?
  • Please review the notice at the top of this article, and make sure the beta option is enabled in 'System Setup'
• Can I change the parent idea?
  • The parent cannot be changed, as such. A workaround would be to un-merge ideas from the existing parent, and then subsequently select those ideas to merge again. You will be prompted to select a parent at that time.
• Will statuses stay synced from parents to children?
  • Statuses are initially synced when ideas are merged. However, subsequently changing status of parent idea will not change the status of child ideas.
• Will step stay synced from parents to children?
  • Child ideas will be moved along with parents to other steps in the pipeline
  • Child ideas will not automatically be moved to different pipelines if parents are moved
• What will appear in reports?
  • Both the parent and child ideas will still be included in Initiative and System-level reports and dashboards
• What will appear in search results?
  • Both parent and child ideas will be visible from search. If you wish to hide an idea, toggle the visibility to 'hidden'