Re: xml question regarding document comparing

[Robin LaFontaine <robin@monsell.co.uk>]

Dennis,

If you download DeltaXML Markup from our web site 
(http://www.deltaxml.com) this will show you the 'real' changes 
between two XML files and it work for small files without payment.

As well as identifying changes to XML files it will re-combine a 
change file with an original file. So, depending on the actual 
structure of your files, you may be able to diff two and apply the 
diffs to the other one - you may not get exactly the results you want 
automatically but you will see exactly what has changed which is the 
first step. As the delta file is in XML you can easily view it or 
convert to HTML to look at it (XSL scripts to do this are on the web 
site and in the download).

But to do this merge properly, you need a more intelligent comparison 
that knows about the DTD. In general, a merge of XML files without 
knowing about the DTD or Schema structure does not produce good 
results without human input. We have a DTD-aware comparator in 
DeltaXML DTD but it was not easy to write this! But it does do a more 
intelligent comparison and re-combination based on the DTD structure. 
Although this is not free it is a cost-effective solution unless you 
value your time at zero.

You have other suggestions, e.g. alphaworks, from other replies.

Kind regards,
Robin

>At 1:07 pm -0700 2/7/01, S.Watts wrote:
>I have 3 documents from different companies which are their versions
>of a legal document or rule.  I also have this official rule from a
>governing body which needs to reflect the changes each company has put
>forward.  I would like to turn each version into a xml document so I
>can realize the differences each version has from the official rule.
>So I would like to create a master xml and compare it with one of the
>versions.  After the two are compared the master xml needs to contain
>the changes that were made.  I would like to create something that
>would accomplish this rather than purchase something that would do
>this for me.  I would appreciate any help you could offer that would
>help me accomplish this, thanks.
>dennis watts
>denniswatts2000@home.com
>
>
>
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-- -----------------------------------------------------------------
Robin La Fontaine, Monsell EDM Ltd
(XML file comparison, Engineering data exchange and management using XML)
Tel: +44 1684 592 144 Fax: +44 1684 594 504
Email: robin@monsell.co.uk      http://www.deltaxml.com