Exploring Differences
See below for graphical workflows to compare flows and SubFunctions in the Diff Tool. After you select the flows or SubFunctions to compare, you can graphically compare the elements of flows and mappings.
Selecting Flows or SubFunctions to Compare
When you're comparing projects or function collections in the Diff Tool, you can compare flows or SubFunctions that have the same name or internal ID. Select the counterpart flows or SubFunctions in the menu above the workspace.
Common Tasks
In the workspace and surrounding panes, you can compare counterpart flow elements and drill down to configuration details. Flow elements are counterparts if they have the same name.
The workspace's highlighting shows the differences between counterpart flow elements. You can get details on differences in the surrounding panes:
- Using and Configuring Highlighting
- Drilling Down to Details
- Comparing Mapper Components
- Comparing Multiline Properties
- Zooming In or Out
Using and Configuring Highlighting
In the workspace, the highlighting for a flow element's border shows the differences between counterpart flow elements, if a counterpart exists. The highlighting shows the following differences:
| Status | Border color |
|---|---|
| Modified | Blue |
| Added (the flow element exists only on the right) | Green |
| Deleted (the flow element exists only on the left) | Red |
| Unchanged | No border |
- See Also
- See Diff Options to open the Options menu and ignore or highlight changes such as changes in position or links.
Drilling Down to Details
You can select items in the workspace and get details in the surrounding panes. In the report pane, you can get details on changes. You can view the original configuration in the inspector, Variables pane, and Stream pane.
You can do the following to compare the configuration of projects, function collections, flows, SubFunctions, components, and mapper functions:
- To compare components, mapper functions, and SubFunctions, click the flow element in the workspace or in the differences pane.
- To get details on the open flow or SubFunction, click an empty area in the workspace.
- To compare project properties or function collection properties, click the project or function collection icon above the workspace.
Comparing Mapper Components
Double-click a modified Mapper component in the workspace or differences pane to compare the mapping in a new tab.
You can click an empty space in the mapping area to show operations that changed mappings and layers in the report pane.
Comparing Multiline Properties
The Diff Tool will only show modifications to the first line of a property value. Use an external diff program to compare multiline property values, for example, the Velocity component's Template property.
To explore the changes to multiline properties, you can right-click the entry for a change in the report pane and click Compare with Diff Program.
You need to assign a diff program for files that match the "*.txt" pattern. When you click the Compare with Diff Program command, the Diff Tool saves the property to a temporary file (.txt) and opens the default diff program for .txt files.
See Specifying External Diff Programs under "Version Control" for a guide.
Zooming In or Out
Select the scale in the menu next to the Flow Name menu or SubFunction Name menu.