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| <TITLE>Advanced compare techniques</TITLE> |
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| <H2> |
| Advanced compare techniques</H2> |
| |
| <p> |
| This section provides additional information about advanced API in the compare |
| plug-in.</p> |
| |
| <h3>Writing compare operations</h3> |
| |
| <p>A compare operation must be implemented as a subclass of |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareEditorInput.html"><b>CompareEditorInput</b></a>. |
| A |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareEditorInput.html"><b>CompareEditorInput</b></a> |
| runs a (potentially lengthy) compare operation |
| under progress monitor control, creates a UI for drilling-down into the |
| compare results, tracks the dirty state of the result in case of merge, |
| and saves any changes that occurred during a merge.</p> |
| |
| <p> |
| |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareUI.html"><b>CompareUI</b></a> |
| defines the entry point to initiate a configurable |
| compare operation on arbitrary resources. The result of the compare is |
| opened into a compare editor where the details can be browsed and edited |
| in dynamically selected structure and content viewers.</p> |
| <p> |
| |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/NavigationAction.html"><b>NavigationAction</b></a> |
| is used to navigate (step) through the individual |
| differences of a |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareEditorInput.html"><b>CompareEditorInput</b></a>.</p> |
| <p> |
| |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareConfiguration.html"><b>CompareConfiguration</b></a> |
| configures various UI aspects |
| of compare/merge viewers like title labels and images, or whether a side |
| of a merge viewer is editable. It is passed to the |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareEditorInput.html"><b>CompareEditorInput</b></a> |
| on creation.</p> |
| <p> |
| |
| When implementing a hierarchical compare operation as a subclass of |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareEditorInput.html"><b>CompareEditorInput</b></a>, |
| clients must provide a tree of objects where each |
| node implements the interface |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/structuremergeviewer/IStructureComparator.html"><b>IStructureComparator</b></a>. |
| This interface is used by the hierarchical differencing engine |
| (<a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/structuremergeviewer/Differencer.html"><b>Differencer</b></a>) to walk the tree. |
| <br> |
| In addition every leaf of the tree must implement the |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/IStreamContentAccessor.html"><b>IStreamContentAccessor</b></a> |
| interface in order to give the differencing engine access to its stream content.</p> |
| <p> |
| |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/BufferedContent.html"><b>BufferedContent</b></a> |
| provides a default implementation |
| for the |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/IStreamContentAccessor.html"><b>IStreamContentAccessor</b></a> |
| and |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/IContentChangeNotifier.html"><b>IContentChangeNotifier</b></a> |
| interfaces. |
| Its subclass |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/ResourceNode.html"><b>ResourceNode</b></a> |
| adds an implementation for the |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/structuremergeviewer/IStructureComparator.html"><b>IStructureComparator</b></a> |
| and |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/ITypedElement.html"><b>ITypedElement</b></a> |
| interfaces |
| based on platform workbench resources |
| (<a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/core/resources/IResource.html"><b>IResource</b></a>). |
| It can be used without modification as the input to the differencing engine.</p> |
| |
| |
| <h3>Compare functionality outside of compare editors</h3> |
| |
| |
| <p>If you want to use compare functionality outside of the standard compare editor |
| (for example, in a dialog or wizard) the compare plug-in provides additional helper |
| classes.</p> |
| |
| <p> |
| |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareViewerPane.html"><b>CompareViewerPane</b></a> |
| is a convenience class which provides |
| a label and local toolbar for a compare viewer (or any other subclass of a <a href="jface_viewers.htm"> JFace |
| viewer</a>). Its abstract subclass |
| <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareViewerSwitchingPane.html"><b>CompareViewerSwitchingPane</b></a> |
| supports <b>dynamic viewer switching</b>, that is the viewer installed in the pane is dynamically |
| determined by the pane's input object.</p> |
| |
| <h3><a name="Single">Comparing a single file in an editor</a></h3> |
| |
| <p>The <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/CompareEditorInput.html"><b>CompareEditorInput</b></a> supports |
| the comparison of an arbitrary file/folder structure which can be displayed in an editor, dialog or view. |
| However, the specific case of comparing a single file in an editor warrants special handling because, in that case, the |
| desired behavior should be close to that of editing the file. So, for this purpose a subclass of CompareEditorInput |
| has been provided. The <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/team/ui/synchronize/SaveableCompareEditorInput |
| .html"><b>SaveableCompareEditorInput</b></a> class provides this capability and has the following features:</p> |
| <ul> |
| <li>provides a static method <code>createFileElement</code> for creating a type element that represents a file.</li> |
| <li>supports the use of shared documents (i.e. file buffers).</li> |
| <li>supports the workbench Saveables API.</li> |
| <li>auto-closes when changes are resolved.</li> |
| <li>initializes asynchronously.</li> |
| </ul> |
| |
| <h3><a name="Patch">Working with patches</a></h3> |
| |
| <p>The <a href="../reference/api/org/eclipse/compare/patch/ApplyPatchOperation.html"><b>ApplyPatchOperation</b></a> provides |
| the ability to launch the Apply Patch wizard programmatically. The pages shown by the wizard are determined using the inputs to the operation. |
| The class also contains the static method <code>parsePatch</code> which can be used by clients to deal with patches in a custom manner. |
| |
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