Merging abstracts 2.0

[jbenito]

The main problem with the INDICO Merge function, and the reason why we could not fully exploit it, is that it is *available to Conference Managers only* (at least, this was the case in 2010). Instead, the work of merging is done by *Track Managers*. 
So we ended up not using it (or rather using it only in part).

For your info, this is the workflow we "designed":
1- suppose that a Track Manager (TM) wants to merge Abstract #100 and Abstract #200 into Abstract #300
2- first, TM creates #300, by submitting an abstract him/herself with pieces copied and pasted from #100 and #200
3- then, it flags #100 and #200 with "mark as duplicated"
4- finally it proposes #300 for acceptance
5- at this point, the Conference Manager does the following: 
	-- takes abstract #100, clicks on 'Unmark as duplicated' (and 'confirm')
	-- clicks on 'merge into' and inputs "#300"
	-- repeats same two steps for #200
	-- accepts #300
6- this sequence triggers some notifications:
	-- acceptance notification to the submitters of #300
	-- custom notification (that we called merging notification) to the submitters of #100 and #200


There were also other minor aspects not fitting our needs. One is that Merge essentially allows to... merge #100 and #200 into an *already existing* #300 (I'm using the same example as above). It would be useful to be able to create #300 on the spot, starting from pieces of #100 and #200. The process in point (2) above is quite painful for the TM (copy and paste all email addresses etc etc). 

In a dream scenario of how merging could work, the TM could e.g. open #100 and #200 in two pop-up windows and create #300 by dragging pieces of text and other information (such as names of authors, presenters...) from those pop-up windows...