Previewing, printing, and saving comparison results

Chapter 10 Comparing and Merging Models

Previewing, printing, and saving comparison results

You can preview, save, and export the results of the comparison by clicking the Compare Preview tool to launch the Compare Preview window. This window provides three formats viewing the comparison results on the following tabs:

Comparison Text – a textual representation of the differences between the models. This is the most exhaustive format, and provides complete information about the whole object tree. Select the Show Legend and/or Show Model Identification options to display additional information at the beginning of the text.
Actions Description – a list of the actions that would need to be taken to render the models the same. This will often be the most readable format as it represents each change in the form of a sentence:
List – a columnar representation of the required actions. This format is the most easily manipulated. You can sort by any of the columns, and export the list in a variety of formats to allow for various kinds of transformation:

The following tools are available on each of the tabs:

Tool	Description
Use Filter	Filters the changes using the filter specified in the main window (see Filtering the changes to compare). If no filter has been specified before the preview is launched, then this option is not visible.
	Print
	Save - Saves the comparison in text format for Comparison Text and Actions Description , and in XML, CSV, RTF, or HTML format for List.

The following columns appear on the List tab:

Column	Description
Action Type	Specifies the type of action to perform. Can be any of the following: Create – creates an object Delete – deletes an object Modify – modifies an object Move Object – moves an object to a new parent Col Insert – inserts an object into a collection Col Remove – removes an object from a collection Col Move – moves an object from one position to another within a collection
Parent	Specifies the parent of the object to be changed (the original parent, in the case of an object that will be moved). For example, a class for an operation, or a diagram for a symbol.
Type	Specifies the type of the object to be changed.
Object	Specifies the name of the object to be changed
Property	Specifies the object property or collection to be changed. Empty for a Create, Delete, or Move Object action.
Old Value	Specifies the original value of the property to be changed. Empty in the case of a Create or Col Insert
New Value	Specifies the updated value of the property. Empty in the case of a Delete or Col Remove.

For example, changing the datatype of attribute MyVariable from int to long would yield the following column entries:

Action Type  Parent   Type       Object      Property  Old Value  New Value
Modify       MyClass  Attribute  MyVariable  DataType  int        long