iRecord record duplication

[robin-hutchinson]

This was originally reported in the forum, the user has now got in contact through the iRecord inbox with further information:

Forum post: "Regularly, when I submit a single record for a species, a repeat record will appear on my records - this usually happens after the record has been verified. e.g. yesterday I submitted a single record for a hoverfly, after the record was verified, I received the usual verification notification. This morning, I have received two new verification notifications for the same record, when I checked my records page, I now have three entries for the same record, all of which are “verified”? "

They then gave information on the records this was affecting:

"Migrant Hawker: Record: 2772633 Record repeated at: 27726562

Myathropa florea:

Record: 27608433 Record repeated at: 27608181

Voucella zonaria:

Record: 27598010 Record repeated at: 27598586 Record repeated at: 27598658

Common Blue:

Record: 27472831 Record repeated at: 27474158

Comma:

Record: 27472834 Record repeated at: 27474160

Large White:

Record: 27472835 Record repeated at: 27474161

Eristalis arbustorum:

Record: 27472836 Record repeated at: 27474162

Myathropa florea:

Record: 27472837 Record repeated at: 27472163

It is worth mentioning that when uploading from the iRecord App, repeat uploads can also occur.

There have also been other recent examples of the repeat records appearing after records have been verified. But I have previously deleted these duplications from my list."

They tried to enter a record again last night and encountered the same issue: "I submitted a single Field Observation early yesterday evening. It appeared twice on the record sheet, with different Record no’s. I have subsequently deleted the repeat record, as I know that the County Moth Recorder is usually pretty sharp at verification, and didn’t want him verifying a duplicate as well."

[kitenetter]

@johnvanbreda this is an odd one - we've not (yet) had reports of similar problems from other users. Is there anything else we need to know from the user who has reported this, e.g. do you want web browser details?

I had a look at the record that had been triplicated:

• ID 27598010 was added at 20:15 on 10 August, and verified at 20:43 on 10 August
• An identical record with ID 27598586 was added at 20:52 on 10 August, and verified at 07:48 on 11 August
• A third copy with ID 27598656 was added at 21:00 on 10 August, and verified at 07:47 on 11 August

[johnvanbreda]

@kitenetter there is nothing in the audit log to suggest anything other than these are 3 separately entered records with identical information. If they were created by the verifier doing something erroneous, then you would expect the verifier's user ID to be stored in the log and for the timestamps to indicate the duplicate record was created at the time of verification, but the audit trail has logged the original recorder as the person who created all 3 records and the times don't coincide with the verification event.

The only thing I can think of might be if the recorder has found a way to load the record for editing, but the save somehow lost the record's ID so created a new record. I would expect the problem to be more widespread if that were the case though.

[kitenetter]

One of my Berks moth recorders has also recently experienced duplication of a list of records, one of which involved attaching a photo - he is quite certain he did not attach the same photo twice. The duplicated lists have sample IDs 21047067 and 21047240:

These were definitely only entered once - I just followed the procedure and went onto the next set on my list. The only thing I can think of was that I may have had a coffee break at this point (I.e., after submitting records for this date) – in which case I would have naturally reloaded the iRecord page before adding the next set to ensure that I did not encounter a time limit on entries (I would always do this after having a break, having had that problem once in the past). Looking at the entry times of the two Powdered Quaker records this would fit (10:43 and 11:40) – the first time was when I entered the record and the second time is about an hour later when I would have been entering further records. While I begin to doubt my sanity at this point (I.e., is it possible that I entered these twice?), the entry of a distinctive record such as this (which would have involved linking to the image again, etc.) is so unlikely that I have to believe that this is some sort of glitch in the system.

I tried to replicate the suggestion that a page refresh could be the culprit, but when I did the refresh I got an error message and the records did not get saved a second time.