Is there an xml diff test function

[David Thielen]

Hi;

I have a bunch of unit tests that generate xml files (WordML and
SpreadsheetML) and then compare those to the "correct" file. This works great
except that the java code I use to generate the xml (dom4j) differs from
XmlTextWriter in that dom4j places a space at the end of <name atr='value' />
and XmlTextWriter has no space <name atr='value'/>.

They are identical as xml but not as raw text. Is there some method I can
use to compare xml? And I do need to be able to ignore 2 nodes that are
different - they have the version of the software that creates the file and
the date/time it was created.

???

--
thanks - dave

[Oliver Sturm]

David Thielen wrote:

I have a bunch of unit tests that generate xml files (WordML and
SpreadsheetML) and then compare those to the "correct" file. This works
great
except that the java code I use to generate the xml (dom4j) differs from
XmlTextWriter in that dom4j places a space at the end of <name atr='value'
/>
and XmlTextWriter has no space <name atr='value'/>.

They are identical as xml but not as raw text. Is there some method I can
use to compare xml? And I do need to be able to ignore 2 nodes that are
different - they have the version of the software that creates the file and
the date/time it was created.

Try XMLUnit: http://xmlunit.sourceforge.net/

It's not perfect, but it should be able to deal with the cases you are
describing.
Oliver Sturm
--
Expert programming and consulting services available
See http://www.sturmnet.org (try /blog as well)

[David Thielen]

This is perfect - thank you!!

--
thanks - dave
"Oliver Sturm" wrote:

David Thielen wrote:

I have a bunch of unit tests that generate xml files (WordML and
SpreadsheetML) and then compare those to the "correct" file. This works
great
except that the java code I use to generate the xml (dom4j) differs from
XmlTextWriter in that dom4j places a space at the end of <name atr='value'
/>
and XmlTextWriter has no space <name atr='value'/>.

They are identical as xml but not as raw text. Is there some method I can
use to compare xml? And I do need to be able to ignore 2 nodes that are
different - they have the version of the software that creates the file and
the date/time it was created.

Try XMLUnit: http://xmlunit.sourceforge.net/

It's not perfect, but it should be able to deal with the cases you are
describing.
Oliver Sturm
--
Expert programming and consulting services available
See http://www.sturmnet.org (try /blog as well)

[Kevin Yu [MSFT]]

Hi dave,

You need some third party tools to get the difference between Xml files.
These products can ignore the spaces and only compare the nodes. XmlSpy is
one of them. Please check the following link:

http://www.altova.com/features_xmldiff.html

Kevin Yu
=======
"This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no
rights."

[Pascal Schmitt]

Hello!

You need some third party tools to get the difference between Xml files.
These products can ignore the spaces and only compare the nodes. XmlSpy is
one of them. Please check the following link:

http://www.altova.com/features_xmldiff.html

Altova also offers DiffDog wich is cheaper than XmlSpy, if one does not
need the full suite (although it's really nice, especially the Schema
editor)

<http://www.altova.com/features_xml_diffdog.html>
Oh, and Altova also offers "SemanticWorks", an RDF-Editor. It would be
nice, if Microsoft would add something similar to its ToDo-List for
VisualStudio and the .NET Framework.
(There are a lot of SemanticWeb Java-Tools, that should be a reason :)
--
Pascal Schmitt

[stylusstudio]

Try the Stylus Studio XML Diff -
http://www.stylusstudio.com/xml_differencing.html

Sincerely,
The Stylus Studio Team
http://www.stylusstudio.com