Comparing XML files is similar to comparing text files—open a file comparison window and load the files, or paste the texts, you want to compare.
When opening files for comparison, DeltaWalker goes the extra step of analyzing the extension and the content of the files. If they are identified as XML, a second tab, containing a structure view of the XML content, is created for each XML file. The text and the structure views are arranged using a tab strip placed in the bottom left corner of the file comparison window.
The following screenshot illustrates the text view of an XML comparison:
And here is how the structure view of the same two files looks like:
XML files are, by definition, text files and comparing them as such will suffice most of the time. There are times however when running a text comparison on XML files may not yield the results you'd expect. For instance, two files with otherwise identical XML content will be reported as different text files when they have different order of attributes, or the formatting of the file is different. Although designed to be human-readable, XML data are often computer-generated and many XML generators are clueless about formatting and attribute-ordering.
DeltaWalker's XML structure view saves you the guesswork in such cases—the pair of text and structure views gives you the two most important views on your XML data and focuses your attention on the actual XML differences.
When comparing XML files with DeltaWalker 1.0 keep in mind the following about the XML structure view: