xml-dev - Canonical XML, signatures, and element ordering

[Michael Brennan <Michael_Brennan@Allegis.com>]

I'd like to be able to compare two XML files to determine if they have
equivalent content. The catch is, in some instances (but not all) the order
of elements under a particular node is not relevant. It's my understanding
that XML Signature will meet my needs just fine for instances where order is
relevant, but not otherwise. Is that correct?

Are there any suggestions on a good way to do this? The only thing that
comes to my mind is to convert each XML document to its canonical form, then
load it into a DOM tree and procedurally sort the elements under the
relevant node. Would this approach work or are there "gotchas" I'm not
considering? Is there a better way?

Thanks for any tips on this.