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How to Create Linked Entries to Identify and Combine Data from Entries for the same Entity

Nucleus is an open Entry platform and allows Entrants from all companies to submit to your Awards. Depending on the structure and setup of your Awards, it is possible for multiple companies to create Entries for the same entirety into the Awards. The Entries may be entered into the same or different categories. For example, if we look at a Television Programme, it could be entered by the Broadcaster into Best Drama, by the post-production company into Editing, and by the Sound company into Sound. All of the Entries are equally valid, but Nucleus will consider them as independent Entries. Nucleus offers a feature that allows the creation of a link between the Entries, hence the term ‘Linked Entries’, so that Admins can review the answers provided for each field and update them if required so that they match. They can also export the combined data for all of the matching entries in one row of a report. Nucleus terms are the answers that are different in one or more linked entries as discrepancies.

This feature is separate from the Matching Entry Titles feature, as the ideal outcome for this workflow is to report on the combined data for all of the matching entries.

How to Create ‘Linked Entries’

The first step is to switch on the functionality that will identify and create the Linked Entries. Admins need to specify in Nucleus which field the form should be used to match and identify Entries that hold the same value. In most cases, this will be the Entry Title, which is the field set to position 1 for the Entrant Dashboard. To switch on the functionality, please do the following:

  1. Log into the Admin Interface
  2. Go to Actions>Awards
  3. Select Edit in the Actions menu of the Award you wish to set up this feature
  4. On the Award Settings Page, search for Allow Linked Entries and select Yes
  5. A new option will appear called ‘Select Linked Entry Question’. Use this dropdown to select the question that Nucleus will use to match the Entries and create the links. It is recommended to use the Title field.
  6. Click Save and Close

How to Select the Fields that used to Identify Discrepancies

It might be that there are fields on the Entry Form, such as Terms and Conditions, that are not required for the data matching process. Therefore Nucleus provides Admins with the ability to switch on the flagging discrepancies for Linked Entries on a per-question basis. The default for each question is off so to enable this:

  1. Log into the Admin Interface
  2. Go to Actions>Question List
  3. Select edit for the question you would like to update
  4. On the question settings page search for Identify Discrepancies and set the answer to Yes
  5. Click on Save and Close

Repeat to action for multiple questions or you can use the Batch functionary at the top of the question list.

  1. At the top left of the question list table select Update answers from the dropdown
  2. Check all of the questions you wish to Identify Discrepancies for
  3. Click on Ok
  4. Select Identify Discrepancies from the dropdown in the popup
  5. Select Yes from the dropdown that appears
  6. Type I AM SURE
  7. Click on Continue and the questions will be updated

How to Review Discrepancies

Where Entries are linked, there is an additional UI that appears on the Entry Form which Admins can use to update answers within the Linked Entries, if required.

  1. Log into the Admin Interface
  2. Go to Actions>Entries
  3. Select Edit for the Entry you wish to review
  4. If the Entry is linked to another with the same identifier, there will be a table at the top of the Form which details the Questions where the answers provided are different from the answers provided in this Entry. The Entry has a clickable link and Admins can easily go into the Entry and update the answers.
  5. In addition, below each question where there is a discrepancy, a message is displayed to alert Admin Users to identify what the discrepancy is and which Entries are affected.
  6. Admins can review all of the Entries and update the content as required. Please note that here is nothing in Nucleus to mandate any changes, this is completely at the Admins’ discretion.

How to Report Discrepancies

The Report functionality will combine all Linked Entries into one row and any discrepancies across the questions will be outputted in the same column separated with a , so they can be identified. The report uses the Cross Awards Report functionality which enables Admins to completely customise the output. We highly recommend to read the guide if you are not familiar with this report. When building this report, consider that data will be combined across multiple Entries so it would be best to exclude items such as Entry ID, Entrant ID, email etc.

When creating the report make sure that you select Yes to the “Combine data for linked entries” field.

In addition if you want the report to export data for each category in a separate row there is an additional function. To enable this:

  1. Log into the Admin Interface
  2. Go to Actions>Misc
  3. Click on Configuration Values
  4. Search for Activate linked entry category grouping and set the value to Yes
  5. Click Save
  6. Go to Actions>Misc
  7. Select Custom Reports
  8. Locate the report and click Edit
  9. Set Combine data by category to No
  10. Click Save

To run the report once you have completed the setup, please go to:

  1. Actions>Misc
  2. Choose Custom Reports under the Reports section