On 11/16/2011 10:30 AM, Philippe Nobili wrote: > > This mail is just a feedback concerning the compare tool introduced in > release v5.1 of XMLmind XML Editor. Certainly, other customers may have > different views on the subject, we just hope this feedback can be useful > among other contributions. > > What is implemented in XXE v5.1 is more or less similar to the "track > changes" mechanism you can find in MS-Word; it is very simple to use. It > does not require any change in the existing XML processing (XSLT etc > etc). The compare tool itself is very easy to use, reviewing changes is > very easy. > > T*hose are very good points. > * > However, the overall "track changes" workflow as implemented in XXE 5.1 > is not practical in our case, we try to explain why below. > > There are two different situations where we need to consider changes > between XML files, both requiring different tools: > > *1. *When authors review an XML document within XXE, the "track changes" > mechanism is exactly what they need. But, this must be kept *within one > single document*, and should not require a second document. > > *Rationale:* Would force us to keep the life-cycle history of XML > documents (which one is the review of which one), and to keep two > documents, when there is usually only one, stored for instance in a SCM > (source code management) system.
Sorry but I don't understand. The Compare Tool is especially SCM friendly: If you are using a document store of any kind: [1] You may want to enable change detection in the last revision of all your documents using convertdoc. See http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/commands/convertdoc.html ==> From now, an author who checks out its working copy will get it with change detection activated. [2] Turn on "Automatically activate change detection". See http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/help/toolsOptions.html#changesOptions ==> From now, an author who creates a new document will create it with change detection activated. If you do this, you'll have the equivalent [*] of a generic XML differencing algorithm such as DeltaXML, plus a user-friendly GUI, the Compare Tool, similar to the "Review Changes" tools found in other applications. > > Suggestion: Open XML, switch the "track changes", make changes, save. > The "compare tool" becomes a "review changes" tool which requires only > an XML document having the "track changes" on. Sorry but I don't understand. XXE does not track changes at all (which, in our opinion, is a good thing). See "Comparison with other approaches" -- http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/help/xmlDiff_approaches.html > > *2.* When XML documents are modified from several different tools, > including batch programs (e.g. XSLT transformations) in addition to XXE > editing, This is indeed a show stopper for the Compare Tool. > we need to be able to dynamically track the changes between > several revisions of the same file. In this case, the "track changes" as > it is implemented now isn't of any help. > A typical use case if when examinating the difference between two > versions of the same document from a SCM tool (E.g.: say, the /workspace > revision/ and the /last revision/ committed by somebody else). > > In this case, we have two XML files, and what we really need is to > dynamically compute an "XML-aware" difference between these two > versions. The compare tool would be a great tool to navigate within this > dynamic difference (behind the stage this might imply using an XML-diff > engine ?). Sorry but we do not plan to support DeltaXML as a plug-in in the short term. > > We hope this is not too long; again, this is just how we see things in > my company, and by no means the only way to do things.... We hope this > can be useful however. Thank you for your feedback. In fact we expected that kind of feedback. Sorry to have disappointed you. --- [*] If you want to estimate the costs of doing this, please take the time to read "Description of the XML differencing algorithm implemented in the Compare tool" http://www.xmlmind.com/xmleditor/_distrib/doc/help/xmlDiff.html -- XMLmind XML Editor Support List [email protected] http://www.xmlmind.com/mailman/listinfo/xmleditor-support
