Compare Lesson 2 – Reverse Compare Direction

In the second lesson, we will compare a current module to one of its baselines, but reverse the direction of the compare. Afterwards we will analyze the resulting view column and see how reversing the direction gives different messages.

To begin, navigate to the project for the previous lesson, open its Module, and start the Compare Modules script as shown in Lesson 1. Like the previous lesson, select the Compare with Baseline radio button, select as target the latest baseline, and check the Test Status attribute.
To reverse the direction of the compare per the previous lesson, press the Target is newer (after change) radio button. Press the Add Comparison Column button to setup the compare column, the press the Close button to dismiss the Compare Modules window.
We see that the new column has been added to the current view containing the comparison results. So that we can better see the results, remove the module explorer and resize the columns and window as needed.

Before we begin the analysis, it is important to understand the direction of the comparison. The results in the comparison column assume the objects in the source view are older than those being compared against. The results show how you would change the current object on the right-hand side into the last baselined one.

Let’s look at the first comparison result, ORG_13, in the first section, called Attribute Differences. The comparison result tells us the Object Heading changed. To change the current heading into the baselined heading, you would delete the word "changed" (red and struck out) and add the words "will change" (blue and underlined).

The object ORG_12 has formatting changes. As stated in the previous lesson, the algorithm that calculates the text changes above can only detect that a formatting change has occurred. It cannot show how it changed. So the rich text from the old object is shown.
In the next section, entitled Link Differences, we have three objects whose links have been changed. The first change was to ORG_17. The comparison column tells us that a link was created in the baselined object. The second change, to ORG_18, shows the link that we see on the far right-hand side was deleted.
The next section is called New Delete Purge Differences. The first change is to ORG_21, which the result column says was undeleted, i.e. the baselined object is not deleted compared the current object that is deleted. You will notice though that the comparison result is in ORG_20. Again, that’s because it is possible that the current view might not show deleted objects, so the result is shown in the preceding non-deleted object.

The result column also says objects ORG_23 and ORG_25 were added. Since those objects do not exist in the current module, and they do in the baseline, the results calculated say the objects were created (i.e. added), since that is how you would change the current module to become the baselined module.