Prevent the creation of duplicate links during change set delivery by detecting and consolidating logically identical links created independently in separate streams or change sets

When multiple users work in parallel and independently create the same link between two artifacts, delivering those change sets back to a shared stream can result in duplicate links being created. Although the links have different internal identities and URIs, they represent the same logical relationship from the user's perspective.

This behavior can lead to:

• Cluttered artifact views containing duplicate links.
• Confusion for end users who expect a single relationship to exist between the two artifacts.
• Additional manual cleanup effort to identify and remove duplicate links.
• Reduced confidence in link integrity and configuration management processes.
• Potential reporting and traceability inaccuracies where duplicate relationships are counted multiple times.

During change set delivery, DOORS Next should evaluate links being delivered and determine whether an identical logical relationship already exists between the same source artifact, target artifact, and link type within the target stream.

If a matching link already exists, the system should provide one of the following configurable behaviors:

• Automatically merge/suppress duplicates and retain a single link relationship.
• Warn the user during delivery that a duplicate logical link was detected and allow the user to choose whether to proceed.
• Provide an administrative option to enable or disable duplicate-link detection based on repository requirements.

The solution should focus on identifying logically equivalent links rather than relying solely on internal URI or repository identity, ensuring that parallel development activities do not unintentionally introduce duplicate relationships into the target stream.

Example Scenario

1. User A creates a change set from a stream.
2. User B creates a separate change set from the same stream.
3. User A creates a "Satisfies" link between Artifact X and Artifact Y.
4. User B independently creates the same "Satisfies" link between Artifact X and Artifact Y.
5. Both users deliver their change sets.

Current behavior: Two links are created.

Requested behavior: The delivery process detects that an equivalent link already exists and prevents the creation of a duplicate relationship, or warns the user before completing the delivery.

See existing Technote: https://www.ibm.com/support/pages/duplicate-links-appear-dng-after-delivering-change-sets-same-link?view=full