Tool or library for comparing xml files.

Answer 1

Have you tried examdiff? Of course it's still a tech tool, but it's easy to work with. It has a drag and drop interface to compare files.

Answer 2

I always use kdiff3. It's easy to use and can compare up to 3 files. http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/

Answer 3

Try XML Notepad from Microsoft MSDN XML it has a compare XML files. No idea how good it is.

Answer 4

Do you want a line-by-line compare or an intelligent analysis of the XML trees in each file?

Answer 5

SourceGear's DiffMerge is free for a single-user:

http://www.sourcegear.com/diffmerge/

Answer 6

Beyond Compare is excellent as @BobbyShaftoe has already mentioned. For merging however, I like to use Araxis Merge. We use it for similar purposes quite often.

As far as your comment about the nontechnical ability of your users:

Thanks for the Responses... But these all seem too technical. My users normally do not see the xml tags because their XML authoring tool abstracts them away. Are there any tools that display differences in the text content, but do not show (or de-emphazise) the xml tags.

I'm going to throw this out there: your users should learn. If you have them merging and changing XML files - I'm assuming potentially for record keeping or application configuration - then they should have at least a rudimentary understanding of what they're doing. They don't have to be XML whizzes to use the tools listed and get the job done.

If, however, requiring your users to have a rudimentary knowledge of the job they are doing is impossible, then I would suggest writing a configuration utility yourself and delivering it for your end users, rather than relying on 3rd party software.

Answer 7

You may find The XML Diff and Patch GUI Tool (sample code on MSDN) meets your needs a little better: it still shows tags, but emphasizes the difference in text. Since you get the code, for a little more effort you could tailor it more precisely to your requirements.

Although the sample is relatively elderly (July 2004, and has its roots in 2002) it upgrades to Visual Studio Express C# 2008 painlessly. Don't be put off when downloading the sample from the MSDN site if/when the installer MSI mentions "SQLXML Bulkload in .NET Code Sample" - it's not!

Answer 8

I might try DeltaXML + an XSLT transform to get the specific result that you want. One problem with using plain-text compare tools with XML is that the physical form of an XML document (its indenting, etc.) can change even if the content itself doesn't, which could lead to a lot of false positives. DeltaXML is a very good tool for comparing document-based XML.

Also, depending on the editor your users use, it may have XML differencing built-in. For example, Arbortext Editor has a good tool that shows the text (not the tags) with changes highlighted / struck-through.

Answer 9

If I understand your problem, you likely have an application that uses XML files as the data storage and the GUI abstracts the "technical" tag names into "user friendly" labels - again, I am assuming. So it would be a natural extension to view differences in a similar way. I am also assuming your application doesn't have a diff facility that follows the "abstraction" concept.

I did some searching and found one app (ExamXML) that seems to come close with highlighting features. I downloaded the eval version and tested your files against it:

It does a pretty good job of highlighting the differences. It seems pretty interactive and pops up with how many differences. It looks like you can change the colors it uses, so maybe you can use grays and whites to de-emphasize the tags. It also seems to have a lot of options that you can pre-set for your users as well.

I want to note that you will be hard pressed to find an XML comparison tool that will not show the tag names, as the tags are what give the content context. If you take away context, it becomes difficult to understand the data being displayed. Anyhow, maybe this tool might be helpful. Have you also tried to show your users some of these tools and see what they are willing to tolerate, sometimes they may surprise you. Hope this helps!

Answer 10

Either programatically or UI, you can use XmlDiff, XmlPatch tools and library from MSDN For details how it work, check out the guide.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa302294.aspx

Answer 11

Altova diffDog XML Spy and diffDog are exceptional tools. Pry them from my cold dead hands, kinda stuff.

Answer 12

Oxygen XML Editor has the best collection XML diff's tool I have found. There are several different Algorithms for comparison, so if the default doesn't work for you, try Syntax Aware or some of the other Algorithms (now, I am using version 8 and haven't upgraded to version 10 so ymmv, but I doubt that the XML diff has gotten worse).

Answer 13

I am very surprised nobody mentioned Microsoft's XML NotePad

It's free and it can create a pretty good comparison, telling which elements/attributes have changed, moved, been deleted, etc.:

(Sorry if the screenshots are a little wide).

You can also apply XLSes to the XML file and do various editing operations. Well worth a try.

Answer 14

A tool called columbo can do it, assuming the XML can be reasonably represented in a tabular format. (the tool will try to convert it to hierarchical, relational-style tables and then compare them) and this one is in beta so its still free

Answer 15

I know this is an oldish thread, but Project: Merge is a new Windows application that can manage two-way and three-way merges and comparisons of XML files. (A three-way operation assumes there are two files that are both derived from a common base file.)

You might need to tell it how to identify individual elements to work perfectly on your files, but that's easy enough to do, and you'll only need to do it once.