CONFERENCE PAPER

Approaches to Change tracking in XML

There are many different approaches to tracking document changes in XML and many different situations when finding change is vital. We review popular formats and editors to discover the advantages and disadvantages of each approach in the context of the different use cases.

Putting XML Change Management Methods to the Test

There are several different ways of tracking change in XML documents with each representation having its own advantages in a particular use case scenario. Many document formats have change tracking built into the format, and these range from basic revision flags on added or deleted text, to a richer recording of changes to text and formatting.

But is there an ultimate change tracking approach that offers sophisticated processing and reliable representation of XML differences? We offer our findings of the different approaches we tested in finding and representing change.

Download this conference paper to:

  • Review the different types of change that may occur in an XML document.
  • Understand the challenges of finding change within XML documents.
  • Review various XML editors including oXygen and XMetaL
  • Review the different approaches to change tracking, such as line-by-line diffs and built-in comparison tools.

A comparison of two documents will show what has been changed, change tracking shows how the changes have been made. Therefore these are not the same, and the same result should not be expected.

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From checking new specs in airline manuals to making sure there are no extra zeros within pharmaceutical leaflets it’s important to know when your content changes, can you risk not knowing? For nearly as long as XML has existed DeltaXML has been developing and supporting XML comparison and merge solutions.

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Discover how change, when harnessed and managed, can add real value to a publishing business. The widespread use of XML structured documentation systems, and the deployment of XML-aware change management tools, has made it possible to bring all of the advantages of structured information to the publishing of change.