Warn administrators about duplicate games during creation #363

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opened 2026-06-04 17:48:30 -05:00 by Codex · 1 comment

Codex commented

2026-06-04 17:48:30 -05:00

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Admins can currently fill out the full /admin/games/create form before learning that a submitted game may already exist. That wastes staff time and makes duplicate records more likely, especially now that the admin create flow supports both manual creation and IGDB-assisted prefill.

This issue tracks adding early duplicate detection once an admin enters a game name and selects a platform, so possible matches are surfaced before the rest of the form is completed.

Scope

Add duplicate detection near the top of the admin game creation process.
Start checking once both name and platform_id are present.
Apply the early warning to manual creation and IGDB-prefilled creation.
Compare at least normalized submitted name + selected platform against existing games.
Consider alternate-title matches as a warning signal, especially when the submitted name matches an existing game's alt_titles.
Show matching existing games with enough context for staff to inspect them, preferably linking to the admin edit page.
Keep final-submit duplicate validation as a backstop in case JavaScript is disabled, stale, or bypassed.
Do not change edit, clone, merge, disable, or restore behavior unless needed to avoid false positives.

Acceptance Criteria

After an admin enters a game name and selects a platform, the create form checks for possible duplicate games without requiring the full form to be submitted.
If a likely duplicate exists, the form shows a clear warning near the name/platform fields.
Duplicate warnings include the existing game name, platform, and admin edit link.
Admins can discover possible duplicates before filling in box art, description, genres, release dates, and other metadata.
Submitting a duplicate active game name/platform is still blocked server-side.
Genuinely distinct games with the same title on different platforms can still be created.
Soft-deleted games are handled intentionally: either shown as disabled matches or documented as excluded from blocking.
Existing successful create behavior continues working for non-duplicate submissions.

Test Coverage Required

Feature test for a duplicate-check endpoint or action returning matches for name + platform.
Feature test confirming no matches are returned for the same title on a different platform.
Feature test that posting a duplicate active game name/platform to admin.games.store is rejected and does not create a second row.
Feature test that a normal non-duplicate admin create still saves the game and redirects to the edit page.
If alternate titles are included, add coverage for submitted name matching an existing game's alt_titles.
Browser/DOM-oriented coverage if the project has an established pattern for JavaScript-enhanced admin forms; otherwise cover the server contract and Blade-rendered warning hook.
Run the focused admin game creation tests, then run vendor/bin/pint --dirty before closing the issue.

Progress Checklist

Admin create route exists
Manual and IGDB-assisted flows share the final create save path
Create form collects name and platform before the expensive metadata fields
Add early duplicate-check route/action or equivalent form interaction
Add UI warning near the name/platform fields
Link possible matches to existing admin game records
Add server-side duplicate blocking at final submit
Decide exact matching rules for normalized names, platforms, soft-deleted games, and alternate titles
Preserve valid new-game creation behavior
Add focused Pest feature coverage
Run affected tests and Pint

Admins can currently fill out the full `/admin/games/create` form before learning that a submitted game may already exist. That wastes staff time and makes duplicate records more likely, especially now that the admin create flow supports both manual creation and IGDB-assisted prefill. This issue tracks adding early duplicate detection once an admin enters a game name and selects a platform, so possible matches are surfaced before the rest of the form is completed. ## Scope - Add duplicate detection near the top of the admin game creation process. - Start checking once both `name` and `platform_id` are present. - Apply the early warning to manual creation and IGDB-prefilled creation. - Compare at least normalized submitted name + selected platform against existing games. - Consider alternate-title matches as a warning signal, especially when the submitted name matches an existing game's `alt_titles`. - Show matching existing games with enough context for staff to inspect them, preferably linking to the admin edit page. - Keep final-submit duplicate validation as a backstop in case JavaScript is disabled, stale, or bypassed. - Do not change edit, clone, merge, disable, or restore behavior unless needed to avoid false positives. ## Acceptance Criteria - After an admin enters a game name and selects a platform, the create form checks for possible duplicate games without requiring the full form to be submitted. - If a likely duplicate exists, the form shows a clear warning near the name/platform fields. - Duplicate warnings include the existing game name, platform, and admin edit link. - Admins can discover possible duplicates before filling in box art, description, genres, release dates, and other metadata. - Submitting a duplicate active game name/platform is still blocked server-side. - Genuinely distinct games with the same title on different platforms can still be created. - Soft-deleted games are handled intentionally: either shown as disabled matches or documented as excluded from blocking. - Existing successful create behavior continues working for non-duplicate submissions. ## Test Coverage Required - Feature test for a duplicate-check endpoint or action returning matches for name + platform. - Feature test confirming no matches are returned for the same title on a different platform. - Feature test that posting a duplicate active game name/platform to `admin.games.store` is rejected and does not create a second row. - Feature test that a normal non-duplicate admin create still saves the game and redirects to the edit page. - If alternate titles are included, add coverage for submitted name matching an existing game's `alt_titles`. - Browser/DOM-oriented coverage if the project has an established pattern for JavaScript-enhanced admin forms; otherwise cover the server contract and Blade-rendered warning hook. - Run the focused admin game creation tests, then run `vendor/bin/pint --dirty` before closing the issue. ## Progress Checklist - [x] Admin create route exists - [x] Manual and IGDB-assisted flows share the final create save path - [x] Create form collects name and platform before the expensive metadata fields - [ ] Add early duplicate-check route/action or equivalent form interaction - [ ] Add UI warning near the name/platform fields - [ ] Link possible matches to existing admin game records - [ ] Add server-side duplicate blocking at final submit - [ ] Decide exact matching rules for normalized names, platforms, soft-deleted games, and alternate titles - [ ] Preserve valid new-game creation behavior - [ ] Add focused Pest feature coverage - [ ] Run affected tests and Pint

Codex added the

component: admin dashboard

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2026-06-04 17:48:47 -05:00

Veilor commented

2026-06-04 18:23:18 -05:00

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"Add server-side duplicate blocking at final submit" Would make these entries impossible for what we do on the website. However the warning is good, I like that, just the blocking isn't.

I'm going to weigh in on this, there are certain releases where there are two versions due to different versions released for a platform. Especially WIi Ware, Nintendo Switch Online & the nintendo digital library in general. There might be one version of a game released as part of an arcade collection or port while NSO gets SNES/NES version. and there exists entries like this already, what would happen to those? "Add server-side duplicate blocking at final submit" Would make these entries impossible for what we do on the website. However the warning is good, I like that, just the blocking isn't.

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