competition products
<xml>cmp is not the only xml-toolbox.
There are many.
But, we think: If you are looking for a toolbox, which
- is very performant
- higly configurable, but easy to handle
- has no special memory requirements
- has no problems with processing large files
- needs no additional filters or programming-work
- displays the compariosn result in standard xml or pdf
it's true: <xml>cmp is the only right choice!
If you compare <xml>cmp with any competition product, take the following checklist:
checklist
checkpoint: tools
- comparing-tool
- sorting-tool
- merging-tool
- regrouping-tool
checkpoint: comparison result
- Are differences shown in the context of the xml-data?
- Are you able to choose between "all data + differences" and "only differences"?
- How is the comparison result displayed ?
- as a pdf-document ?
- as a xml-file?
- or do you need a special software to take a look at the comparison result?
checkpoint: large files
- Can you process really large files of 1 gigabyte and higher without frustrating try-and-error-tuning of parameters like java-heap-size and without choosing special algorithms for large files?
- What is titled a "large file"? Some say: 50kilobytes are large files.
We think: When a file exceeds 500megabytes, you can speak of large files. - Decisive is: How much memory does the tool need for processing of large files ?
- If you compare for example two 100megabyte-files, and the tool needs therefore 500megabytes and more of memory, then you and your colleagues will not be happy, if so many resources are blocked for just file-comparing.
checkpoint: performance
- Is the performance good?
- Is the performance linear to the file-size, or does performance slow down dramatically when processing larger files?
checkpoint: interfaces
- Do you get a really simple command-line-interface?
- Do you get a java-api?
checkpoint: identifiying keys
- Can you define elements and attributes as identifying keys and attributes?
- If you cannot do this, you cannot make an accuracy comparison or merge, because you always have to say, which data should be compared/merged.
- Can you configure, that detail-elements are identifying for hierarchically upper parent-elements? That is a very important question, for that is a common typical problem in the software-praxis.
For example: one person cannot be identified only by the element <person/name>. You need for identifying the detail-elements <town>, <street> and <houseno> of the element <person/address>. - Can you compare files, which have elements with the same content but in a different sequence without throwing error-messages?
checkpoint: easy to use
- Can you simply configure the comparison/merge/sort/convert-rules?
- Or do you have to write complex filters, pre-processors, xslt-scripts and ….?
- How simple is it, to exclude a element from comparison?
(One not simple and not smart and not performant solution is to write xslt-filters, that drop these elements.) - Do you have the feeling, you have to be a java-programmer to use the tool with all it's features?
checkpoint: examples
- Which examples does the competitive product show you?
- Do the examples compare only xhtml-files, which have only layout oriented content and not structured-oriented data like rows and fields?
checkpoint: output
- Is the output also an xml-file, or only html-output or just displayed on the screen?
- Do you have statistic-informations, for example when comparing xml-files, like:
- which differences ? how often?
- time consumed
- temporary disk-space needed
checkpoint: pricing
- Is the licensing model complex? Does it has many restrictions?
- Are all the licensing conditions and prices published?
or do you have to "discuss" about prices?
