Adding an already existing ("invisible") movie selection dialog

[FilmLuchs]

Hello

thank you for the great PVD, i think it's the best movie organizer out there

But now i find a behaviour that i do not understand:

In my database is an invisible movie (without movie ID), that is not visible in the UI.
I assume it's been downloaded in the past (when i downloaded awards or filmography etc.)
In preferences i checked "Show selection dialog if similar records are already in the db", because i do want a clean db without duplicates (I know you can remove duplicates with db cleanup, but then i do not know which duplicates are removed; so i want to hold it clean manually. OK but that's not the problem).

Lets say, the movie is "Olympia" from L.Riefenstahl.
Before editing i save a backup "Backup X".

1. I add a new movie "Olympia" and save. No selection dialog.
2. I edit this movie and add the original title and want to save. Selection dialog pops up (Similar movie already in db). I can save the movie and there are no duplicates in the db. Great.
3. Now i restore the old backup "Backup X" and add a new movie "Olympia", add the original title and save. No selection dialog pops up.

OK, you would say: "Add a title", save, and then edit the title to get the selection dialog."
But: i found out that the selection dialog sometimes appears, but sometimes it doesn't appear.
I restore backups and by trial and error i can sometimes achieve that the selection dialog appears, but i never can be sure that it pops up.

My question:
What's the logic behind the selection dialog and what do i have to do, so that the dialog always pops up?

Thanks

[nostra]

PVD will automatically use the existing entry if it is an exact match (all titles and year are identical)...

[FilmLuchs]

PVD will automatically use the existing entry if it is an exact match (all titles and year are identical)...

Hi

i can give examples, when PVD adds a new entry, even if i add exactly the same title, that is already in the db 
But that shouldn't be the problem here; i can live with that behaviour... if i know, in which cases the selection dialog appears (i don't favor by PVD automatically recognized titles, i want select them manually)

OK again...

My question is:
In which cases does the movie selection dialog (see attachment) pop up?
Which condition must be met in the program, so that the selection dialog appears?
I just found out, that i can't predict, when it pops up; sometimes it pops up, sometimes it does not pop up


Thanks








[attachment deleted by admin]

[FilmLuchs]

To illustrate my question another example:

I create a new db.
I add a movie, e.g. "Leon" and save.
Now i add another movie of the same title "Leon" and save.
But no selection dialog appeared; PVD didn't recognize that there is already a movie of the same name.
Why?
(i don't know if this is a bug or a feature, because i just don't know the condition that must be met to pop up the selection dialog)


PS:

i played around and found, that the selection dialog also doesn't appear if

1. i add "Leon", original title "Leon", year: 2000
2. and then i add the same movie with the same entries as given in 1. and save. Again no selection dialog, PVD just adds a new movie.
There are two entries in the "MOVIE" table, both of same title and year (see screenshot)

PS PS:

Of course, i checked the option "Show selection dialog if similar records are already in the database".
(but what means "similar"?  )


[attachment deleted by admin]

[rick.ca]

I think the best advice concerning this feature is...

The feature is pretty buggy and I plan to fix it soon, but in a meantime it is really better to turn it off.

...which was in response to...

Yes, it's an attempt to prevent duplicate (invisible) records being created. I don't think it works very well, so I disable it by deselecting the "Adding items" options at Preferences - Miscellaneous. And yes, it's essentially the same issue as mentioned here...

The purpose of that behaviour is to avoid the creation of duplicate records. I consider it a design flaw—which I hope will be fixed in 1.0. The check for duplicate records should happen after the new item has be selected and downloaded. Any existing (invisible) records can then be positively identified based on URL and deleted.

See also the March 2010 topic "A similar title was found" dialog. The issue was discussed at length in April and May 2009. Those posts have been purged, but I have some of it in my archives, if anyone is interested.