Date Posted: January 15, 1999
Update: March 27, 2001 Bug fixes and more customizable comparison function; improved element comparison; attributes specifiable when determining matching nodes.
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1. What is different from other file comparison tools, such as windiff?
XML Diff and Merge Tool works on the DOM tree, so the result is not a line-based comparison but a merged tree view of the two files with differences tagged relative to the base XML file. The tool compares two XML files, called base and modified files, and, optionally, produces a third XML file, which is the merged file. Differences are shown with an X icon in front, and the goal is to resolve all the changes. The modified/new/removed nodes have pop-up actions that let the user select whether the change should come from the base file or from the modified file. The reconciling action applies recursively to the entire subtree rooted at the node tagged as a difference.
2. When invoking help from the menu or pressing F1, I get an error. What should I do?
By default, the browser is Netscape, and if the browser is running, you don't need to do anything; otherwise select File, Preferences, Help and enter the full path to your browser.
3. What is the comparison algorithm?
Currently, we do a tree-matching using a node identification based on attributes of type ID or based on content. We also want to make the identity function customizable, but the current version does not have such support.
4. What has been updated?
There are bug fixes and a more customizable comparison function. Element comparison works better when sibling nodes have different position under their parent. Also, one can specify which attributes to look at when determining matching nodes.
