What’s the Diff? Diff XML Documents

If you are handling many XML documents, sometimes you need to check the differences between two or more documents. You can perform diffs of XML documents with online and command-line tools.

When you manage a lot of XML documents, it is likely that you will have similar files with different content. Also, it is likely that you will need to keep track of changes on files within a given project. There are online tools—one from DecisionSoft (http://www.decisionsoft.com) and another from DeltaXML (http://www.deltaxml.com)—that can help you quickly compare XML files to see how different they are. There are also several command-line tools available, such as IBM’s XML Diff and Merge Tool (http://www.alphaworks.ibm.com/tech/xmldiffmerge). This hack will walk you through the steps of using these tools.

DecisionSoft’s xmldiff

You can diff local XML files on your computer online with DecisionSoft’s xmldiff . xmldiff makes line-by-line comparisons of XML documents, and therefore is helpful for comparing similar documents that use the same structure and vocabulary.

To compare two similar documents, follow these steps:

  1. In a web browser, go to http://tools.decisionsoft.com/xmldiff.html (see Figure 2-28).

  2. Click the first Browse button, and the File Upload dialog box appears. Find the file time.xml in the working directory and click the Open button.

  3. Click the second Browse button and find time2.xml, and then click Open.

  4. Select the “Split attributes” checkbox.

  5. Click ...

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