Fulfillment activity attributed to wrong person in fulfillment network

Symptoms

In a fulfillment network, Fulfillment activity is attributed to the wrong person if a linked user's ID matches the ID of a new local user (included in the USERS SYNCHRONIZE job).

Scenario

User 1 (whose home institution is Institution A) has a linked account at Institution B. Institution B runs the USERS SYNCHRONIZE job. The User XML file includes a new local user, User 2 (whose home institution is Institution B). User 2 happens to have the same ID as the linked User 1.

In this scenario, the following problematic behavior occurs: instead of the new user being added as a separate entity, the new user's account overrides the existing linked account (User 1). In other words, User 2's information would now appear on the account (name, address, etc), but the account would still be a linked account with a linking ID that points back to User 1. This would cause User 2’s fulfillment activity to be incorrectly attributed to User 1. 

Workaround

The recommended practice to avoid this situation is to put checks in place to avoid duplicate primary IDs being shared by multiple users in a fulfillment network. In this scenario, Alma is functioning as intended. 

The Primary Identifier is a unique ID and cannot be shared. This is by design, as a user who is registered at one institution in a fulfillment network may later move to another institution in the network; the user’s account would then receive updates via the second institution’s USERS SYNCHRONIZE job. The two accounts belong to the same user and are treated as such. Once the USERS SYNCHRONIZE job matches according to Primary Identifier it checks if there is any External user with such Primary Identifier, regardless if it is a linked account or not. Therefore, the same identifiers should not be shared by multiple users in a Fulfillment Network.

• Article last edited: 10-Jun-2021