DiffDog description
Altova DiffDog is the dedicated differencing program created for developers and power users.

Altova DiffDog 2007 is the dedicated differencing program created for developers and power users.

This easy, powerful synchronization tool quickly compares source code or text-based files and any directories, then highlights differences in its visual interface. Merge content with a click of the mouse or open and edit files and folders, then instantly re-compare. Let DiffDog 2007 track down the differences in your development projects.

Powerful File and Directory Differencing

In the development world, reconciling multiple versions of files and directories is a daily requirement. Whether you’re working with HTML files, Java source code directories, XML document frameworks, or any other collection of text-based files, managing multiple file versions in a team environment can be a taxing problem. Developers and power users need a tool for identifying differences quickly and easily, so that they can focus on more productive tasks. Imagine being able to compare source code files in an instant and merge changes with a quick the click of your mouse. Imagine visualizing the differences in two versions of a 30 GB directory instantly, then opening and editing different files side-by-side. And imagine being able to synch-up files on your laptop and desktop computers in a matter of seconds. Altova DiffDog 2007 is a very affordable tool that allows you to do all this and more.

The latest in Altova’s line of award-winning developer tools, DiffDog 2007 is an advanced differencing utility for comparing and merging files, folders, and directories. Altova DiffDog 2007 is available in Standard and Professional editions. Both editions support comparing and merging directories and any type of text file. Additionally DiffDog 2007 Professional Edition provides unique XML-aware differencing functionality – a must for developers working with XML.

In keeping with Altova’s reputation for providing robust yet user-friendly developer tools, the DiffDog interface is as powerful as it’s easy to use.

DiffDog indicates differences visually, allowing you to quickly identify changes. For optimal efficiency, you can edit documents directly within the differencing interface, merge changes, and instantly re-compare the edited files.

DiffDog provides the same powerful capabilities for directory comparisons, allowing you to compare and merge directories, and open and edit the file pairs directly from the directory comparison display.

Intelligent XML Differencing

In addition to text file and directory comparisons, DiffDog® 2007 supports intelligent XML differencing features and options, such as DTD/schema-based validation, well-formedness checking, intelligent entry helpers, and much more to help you compare and merge XML files in an intelligent manner.

The DiffDog® 2007 XML differencing capabilities are completely customizable. For example, you can specify if entities should be resolved, if namespace prefixes, whitespace, CDATA, processing instructions, comments, or the ordering of attributes/child elements should be ignored or not, how to visualize differences, and so on.

DiffDog® 2007 also allows you to compare XML files in advanced text view or the indispensable grid view popularized by Altova XMLSpy®.

Here are some key features of "DiffDog":

XML Editing & Validation
· Well-formedness checking
· Validation (DTD & schema-based)
· Intelligent Editing (DTD/Schema based entry-help)
· Find & Replace with enhanced XML capabilities
· Code-completion & syntax-help
· Pretty-printing of XML files
· Enhanced Grid & Table View

XML Differencing
· Compare single files
· Compare entire directories
· Two comparison modes: textual or XML-aware
· Multiple options for XML-aware comparisons, such as entity resolution, ignore attribute order, ignore comments, etc.
· Show differences in Text or Grid view
· Merge option to help migrate changes from one file to the other

File Comparison
· Comparing any text files
· Differences indicated with colored highlights and connecting lines
· Adjustable colors for indication of differences
· Comparing files in advanced text view
· Word wrap
· White space indicators
· Line feed indicators
· Configurable differencing settings for different file extensions
· Synchronized vertical scrolling
· Synchronized horizontal scrolling
· Support for multiple open file/directory comparisons
· Command line operations
· Provides list of recently compared file pairs
· Source code conformant syntax coloring
· Expand/collapse all folding nodes
· Bookmarks & bookmark margin
· Visual indentation guides
· Text-folding margin
· Option to show differences within lines
· Comparing XML files in grid / table view
· Two comparison modes: textual or XML-aware
· Multiple options for XML-aware comparisons: entity resolution, ignore attribute order, ignore comments, etc.
· Export differencing results in XML format
· Export differencing results in Unix-diff format
· Ignore particular elements or attributes during XML differencing

Directory Comparison
· Compared directories displayed in expandable/collapsible trees
· Compare directory components by file size and date or by file content
· Differences indicated with color-coding and icons
· Expand/collapse all folders in directory
· Support for multiple open file/directory comparisons
· Ability to start file comparisons from within directory comparison
· Command line operations
· Provides list of recently compared directory pairs
· Automatic re-load of directory changed externally
· Synchronization capabilities (copy/insert/delete)
· Support of filters (ignore, compare only)

Source-Code & Text File Editing & Merging
· Bi-directional merging of individual differences
· Text View with syntax-coloring
· Line Number Margin
· Text-folding Margin
· Bookmarks & Bookmark Margin
· Visual indentation guides
· Find & Replace based on Regular Expressions
· Direct editing of files in File Comparision window
· Files compared dynamically during editing
· Unlimited undo for editing and merging
· Find & replace based on regular expressions
· Reload original file from disk
· Automatic back-up of original file
· Automatic re-load of file changed externally

Connectivity
· Filesystem access

Platforms
· Microsoft Windows application (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Server 2003)

International support
· Unicode (UTF-7, UTF-8, UTF-16, ISO-10646, UCS-2, UCS-4)
· All major Characterset Encodings (ASCII, ISO-8859, CJKV, etc.)


Limitations:

· 30-day trial