<oXygen/> XML Diff & MergeA complete diff and merge solution is now also
available as a separate product. It offers both directory and file comparison, six
different diff algorithms and multiple levels of comparison. In large teams composed either of developers or technical writers, the usage of a
shared repository for the source or document files is a must. Often many authors are
changing the same file at the same time. Finding what has been modified in your files and folders can be hard. If your data is
changing, you can benefit from accurate identification and processing of changes in your
files and folders with <oXygen/> XML Diff 's features for comparing files and comparing
directories. These are powerful and easy to use tools that will do the job fast and thoroughly.
With the new possibilities of differencing and merging, it is now easy to manage multiple
changes. Compare FilesThe comparison of a pair of files is done by opening them in two
editors arranged in a side by side layout. You can edit both the source and the target
file. The differences are refreshed when you save the modified documents. The comparison
and merging can be performed also on files inside ZIP-based archives. The differences are presented in a graphical format, the
scrolling of the two documents is synchronized so the matches are kept close one
another. Guiding areas are painted between the two files to allow to easily locate
visually the corresponding differences. An overview ruler helps tracking the changes. The diff solution includes two XML diff algorithms (XML Accurate
- tuned for precise compare and XML Fast - tuned for speed at the expense of some
accuracy), one Syntax Aware algorithm that gives very good results on all file types
known by <oXygen/> XML Diff and three algorithms that rely on the file structure: line
based, word based and character based. Any algorithm can be used to perform differences
on request, but <oXygen/> XML Diff offers also an automatic selection, selecting the
most appropriate one based on the files' content and size. The XML diff algorithms are designed to help with the necessities that come with XML
document comparison. This means that you can specify if namespaces, prefixes, namespace
declarations, processing instructions, comments, CDATA, DOCTYPE, the order of attributes
or even text elements should be ignored or not. All the diff operations do not block the user interface, they present progress
information and allow the user to cancel them at any time. The multiple levels diff support allows you to go into a found difference and see
further what is actually modified there. The second level diff has the full merging
support that is found also in the first level diff. Word Level ComparisonWhen there are modifications between the source and the target file you can see
them in detail, at word level, by clicking the "Show modification details at word
level" button from the Compare menu. Character Level ComparisonYou can also see modifications in even deeper detail, at character level, by
clicking the "Show modification details at char level" button from the Compare
menu. Both the compare directory and compare file tools are available as separate
applications and also integrated in <oXygen/>'s Tools menu. The diff and merge tool is included in the standalone
distribution of the <oXygen/> XML Editor. Compare DirectoriesThe directory comparison result is presented using a tree view.
The directories that contain different files are expanded automatically, so you can
focus directly on the differences. You can merge the directories' content using the copy
actions or you can examine the content of the different files. The comparison and
merging is also performed inside ZIP-based archives (ZIP, JAR, ODF, OOXML). When performing a diff between directories/archives the files can be compared by
several methods: - by timestamp - Only the file date and size are
compared(fastest method). This is useful when the directories contain a lot of
different files.
- by content - The file content is compared using the default
diff algorithm. Depending on the selected algorithm the appropriate options will be
considered, like ignoring the white-spaces, ignoring the namespace prefixes in case of
XML, etc.
- binary comparison - The file content is compared byte with
byte. This is faster than the content method but should be used
mostly when any difference is of importance.
The file and folder exclude filters help to easily specify the set of files that
will be used during the comparison operation. You can choose to see the differences only
from the XML files or XSL files for instance. By default, the comparison is made on all
file types. If a file or a folder exists only on one side of the compared directories, the name
of the file or folder will be colored blue and marked with an "X". If a file exists in
both directories but the content is different, the name of the file will be colored red
and marked with a "not-equal" sign. Compare ImagesBy double-click on a line containing image files a Compare images dialog will be
displayed. The dialog presents the images in the left and right part scaled to fit the
view's available area. You can use the contextual menu actions to scale the images at
its original size or scale it down to fit in the view's available area. This is mostly
useful for visual comparison. The supported image types are: GIF, JPG / JPEG, PNG, BMP. XML Diff Component for Integration in Other ApplicationsThe XML diff engine is also available as a standalone Java component that can be
integrated in an external application. If you want to try out the API please download
the <oXygen/> XML Diff SDK and see the included example of calling the engine
API. What is new in <oXygen/> XML Diff 4July 21, 2011 <oXygen/> XML Diff 4.0 introduces a new unified two-level changes presentation
concept, a redesigned application layout and an improved main working area. Unified Two-Level Diff Changes inside documents are now displayed using two levels of granularity:
a coarser one which displays blocks of changes and a finer one that highlights the
actual changes inside blocks. New File Comparison Representation and Functionality The visual representation of changes was improved: new highlight colors and
cleaner change delimiters reduce clutter in the central working area and allow you to
focus on a specific change. Enhanced Changes Navigation Navigation operations were updated to take into account the unified
two-level diff. They can jump from one block of changes to the other and they also
step into blocks passing through each actual change. Improved Changes Management Merging operations are faster and offer more flexibility, being able to act
both on blocks of changes and single modifications. Redesigned Application's General Layout Much effort was put into redesigning the application layout in order to
offer better ergonomics and improved workflow: a redesigned toolbar with reworked
icons help improve the user experience. Also, an in-place widget provides quicker
access to content-dependent actions that allow you to copy, replace or delete the
content of any difference. | 
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