This post describes the new Catch-all configuration option added in the OneMerge Winter ’25 release (Standard and Enterprise Editions).
With OneMerge Standard or Enterprise Edition versions prior to the Winter ’25 release (v1.74) fields must be added to a Merge Rule in order to be processed by a merge operation. The Merge Rule provides the validity and priority logic for the added group of fields. For example, the Merge Rule logic for Account Billing Address could be to use the most recently updated (priority) Billing Address where the Street, Zip and Country are populated (validity). Fields not added to a Merge Rule are simply skipped which means the original values on the Master Record are retained. In cases where the required field merge logic mirrors the logic applied to the selection of the Master Record, then this behaviour works well. As a second example, if the record chosen to be the master should be the oldest created record in the group of identified duplicates and the “First Registration Date” field value should also be taken from the oldest created record, then a Merge Rule is not necessary. In cases where the required field merge logic does not mirror the logic applied to the selection of the Master Record, then Merge Rules must be added which group fields and apply the requisite validity and priority criteria. Where specific logic is required for certain field groupings the configuration of a Merge Rule is necessary, however for the remaining fields (and also future fields) setup and maintenance of a Merge Rule is an administration overhead. A more streamlined alternative would be the ability to specify the default priority logic for all fields not added to a Merge Rule. This alternative has now been introduced in v1.74 as the Default Merge Rule Priority “Is Catch-all?” option; as shown below.
Simplified Setup with Catch-all
When the “Is Catch-all?” option is ticked and Default Merge Rule Priority settings are defined, then all fields that are not added to a Merge Rule are updated on the Master Record from the record evaluated to have the highest priority value. Note, the running user for the merge operation must have update access to the fields. Also, in a cross-object merge context, records from a different Salesforce object to the Master Record are ignored.
In summary, the Default Merge Rule Priority settings allow Merge Rules to delegate the priority logic to a default set at the Merge Ruleset level, whilst retaining rule specific validity logic. Now with the “Is Catch-all?” option, the same priority settings can be applied as a default for all fields not added to a Merge Rule. This provides a simplified setup with Merge Rules being created only for exceptions to the default priority or where specific validity logic is required.
Thanks for reading.