On December 4th, we held an insightful session on deduplication techniques, a critical topic for any successful SugarCRM implementation. The session was led by Rafa and Matt, with valuable contributions from the community.
Session Takeaways
Before diving into Sugar’s native deduplication capabilities, Rafa kicked off the discussion by covering the fundamentals and theory of deduplication. He explained what deduplication is, how to identify the "master record" or primary record, and the complexities involved in selecting that record.
Rafa also shared some common practices for deduplication, focusing on approaches for determining the correct primary record.
We then shifted to a demo, where we explored how Sugar makes deduplication easier through its intuitive UI. Users can seamlessly select a group of records they believe are duplicates and choose the fields to be merged into the primary record.
Then the cool part!
We jumped into a behind the scenes look into how Sugar automatically handles deduplication. Rafa explained the default out-of-the-box (OOB) deduplication strategy, the core code and APIs that power it, and how it can be customized thru the use of filter metadata. We also showed how developers can even implement their own deduplication strategies and leverage Sugar's unique user experience for deduplication.
A key point to emphasized is that this automatic deduplication strategy is enabled by default. The only way to disable (there's no UI or admin feature yet) or modify the deduplication strategy is through changing the Vardefs, which requires deploying a package followed by a QRR (Quick Repair and Rebuild).
Additionally, we explored several popular add-ons available in the SugarCRM marketplace, SugarOutfitters, that can help enhance deduplication efforts.
Looking ahead
As the holidays approach, we’re taking a break in January but will be back with more Developer Office Hours sessions in February. We hope you have a restful and joyful holiday season!
Happy Holidays, Sugar Devs!
Session Recording
Link to Recording.
Let us know how we are doing!
We want our Developer Office Hours sessions to be relevant and valuable. Please provide feedback so we can continue to improve and better serve you!
Share your feedback with this short survey.
Next Session Sign-Up
The next session will be on February 5th, 2024. There will not be a January session.
Please register for the Office Hours series so you don’t miss a session.
Developer Office Hours are (typically) held on the first Wednesday of every month at 10 a.m. ET / 7 a.m. PT.
