Skip to content

Visual Diff

Compare two BusinessObjects objects, two versions of one object, or many report pairs at once, and see exactly what changed.

License and permission

The Visual Diff tab appears when your license includes the BusinessObjects client features and your MetaMiner role grants Tab: Visual Diff. This permission applies to all environment types, so it must be granted on every loaded environment; one environment without it hides the tab. Version history needs View versions; restoring a version needs Restore version. See Permissions Reference and Editions and Licensing.

How it works

Visual Diff has two drop areas, Left Target and Right Target. You drag objects from the CMS Explorer onto them, choose a diff mode, and MetaMiner shows the left and right trees side by side with changes highlighted. The two objects can come from the same environment or from two environments (for example DEV and PROD, or before and after an upgrade).

The tab has two sub-tabs:

Sub-tab Compares
Data Folders, Web Intelligence documents, universes and other CMS content.
Users Users, user groups and aliases (with Hide empty groups, Show empty groups only and Show groups only filters).

Image of the Visual Diff Data sub-tab with a Web Intelligence document on each side and highlighted differences in Structure mode

../../images/client/visual-diff-structure.png

Diff modes

Mode What is compared Notes
Structure Report tabs, data providers, result objects, variables, condition objects (Web Intelligence); classes, objects, tables, joins, contexts, parameters (universes). Needs Web Intelligence or universe metadata processing in your license. The only mode available for versions.
Content XLS The data of the two reports, exported to Excel and compared. Web Intelligence documents.
Content PDF The rendered pages of the two reports, compared page by page. Needs Report Validation in your license; not available in Basic Edition. Prompts for left and right reports are asked first when needed.
Raw Dataprovider The raw data returned by the data providers. Web Intelligence documents.

Image of the Output Comparison window in Content PDF mode with differences marked in red

../../images/client/visual-diff-pdf.png

Comparison options

Option What it does
CUID mode Matches child objects by CUID instead of by name and path.
Use 'last modified' date Treats a different last-modified date as a change.
Presence of instances Treats a difference in whether instances exist as a change.
Highlight Exact Change Highlights the exact changed characters inside a value.
Filter panel Hide all properties, and per-type show/hide switches (for example Show report tabs, Show data providers, Show queries, Show tables, Show joins, Show contexts).

Right-click a changed row for Show Change Details (old and new value side by side, with Format as SQL for SQL text) or View Value. Zoom In opens the selected pair in a new comparison.

Compare two objects

  1. Open the Visual Diff tab and the Data sub-tab.
  2. Drag the first object from the CMS Explorer onto Left Target.
  3. Drag the second object onto Right Target.
  4. Select a Diff Mode.
  5. Click Diff reports. MetaMiner shows "Computing differences..." and then the result, or "No differences are found".
  6. Click Compare another to return to the targets, or Clear Results.

A shortcut from the CMS Explorer: select exactly two Web Intelligence documents (or two universes), right-click and choose Compare with Each Other. For documents the submenu offers Compare Structure..., Compare Raw Dataproviders..., Compare Content XLS..., Compare Content PDF... and Compare Definitions (MMDB)..., which compares the two document definitions stored in the MetaMiner Database (MMDB) and can copy the SQL used for Meta Query.

Compare many pairs (batch)

When you drop several documents on each side, Visual Diff lists the pairs in the Batch rows table (Left Report, Right Report, status). Each pair is compared in turn and marked Changed, No Difference or Failed!. Double-click a pair to see its detail.

TODO: confirm how batch pairs are matched (order, name or CUID)

Source to check: batch mode in the current MMC build.

Versions and restore

When Web Intelligence version history is turned on, MetaMiner keeps prior versions of each changed document and Visual Diff shows a versions table below the targets.

  1. Select a document and choose View > View Versions... in the CMS Explorer, or drop it on a target and click Load Versions.
  2. Pick two versions (or a version and the current document) and compare them in Structure mode.
  3. To roll back, select a version and click Restore. MetaMiner writes that version back to the CMS.

Warning

Restore replaces the current document in the BusinessObjects environment with the selected version.

Version history is controlled by the server's Web Intelligence history setting in the MMA Backup settings page (webi.keep.history, off by default). See Backup settings. The versions table can be hidden per user with Hide Versions for Diff in Preferences.

Troubleshooting

Content PDF is greyed out

Your license does not include Report Validation, or it is a Basic Edition license.

No versions for selection

Version history is off on the server, or the document has not changed since history was turned on.

Structure mode refuses a universe

Your license does not include universe metadata processing.