Openrefine: Duplicating a reconciled column

[wetneb]

We can duplicate a column by "add column based on this column" and the default value expression, but that will only copy the values, not the reconciliation data. There is a "Copy reconciliation data" operation but it does not seem to work for me. (I haven't looked into the code to see what is happening there)

When working with wikidata, we can create a new column with cell.recon.match.id and then reconcile that again, but it is a bit sad that this reconciliation step is required.

Did I miss anything?

[thadguidry]

Your detective work can start here :) https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/blob/master/main/webapp/modules/core/MOD-INF/controller.js#L129

https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/blob/master/main/webapp/modules/core/MOD-INF/controller.js#L190

https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/blob/master/main/src/com/google/refine/commands/recon/ReconCopyAcrossColumnsCommand.java

https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/blob/master/main/src/com/google/refine/operations/recon/ReconCopyAcrossColumnsOperation.java

Interestingly, in some translations we have "copy-recon" and "copy-recon2" ? weird. Oh wait, that's just the hover text on copy-recon2.

https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/blame/da513589491c7df99a1f22de1592197fc5cd68b3/main/webapp/modules/core/scripts/views/data-table/menu-reconcile.js#L127

AH ! Here:
https://github.com/OpenRefine/OpenRefine/blame/da513589491c7df99a1f22de1592197fc5cd68b3/main/webapp/modules/core/scripts/views/data-table/menu-reconcile.js#L399

[thadguidry]

@wetneb It still works just fine for me in OpenRefine 2.8 ... just tested with

Abraham Lincoln
George Washington
Barack Obama

Where all 3 were Recon'd and matched.
I made a new column based on "copy value from original column"
Then selected "Copy reconciliation data..." and the dialog came up and I clicked Copy...

[ettorerizza]

Oh gosh, never paid attention to this very useful function... The reconciliation menu is too crowded with obsolete features related to Freebase. Since all this stuff is not documented, when something seems not work, we tend to give up too quickly.

I am just discovering the "best candidate's types" facet that looks super-interesting. It allows to classify candidates by their classes (the QID of the classes in the case of Wikidata) !

[wetneb]

@thadguidry okay, it seems that it checks that the cell values are equal before transferring the reconciliation results (which was not the case for me).

[msaby]

While writing about #2114 I tried to understand the behavior of "Edit cells > copy reconciliation data".

It is the only menu in OR that copy values in an other column, instead of creating new column. I suppose the only way to use this feature is a manual workflow with 2 steps :

• step 1 : create a new column with the values of the source column (column -> create new colum...)
• step 2 : copy recon data to that new column.

That would explains why the underlying values of source and destination columns have to be the same.

So would you agree to see this menu creating a new column instead of copying recon data to a new column? The user will be asked the name of the column to create, then this column will be created with a copy of "ordinary" values of source column, then the recon data will be copied to that new column.