Learning Objectives

After completing this lesson, you’ll be able to:

• Open the Compare window.
• View and understand the list of changes in the Compare window.
• Merge selected changes in the Compare window.

What is the Compare Tool?

One of FME’s strengths is its ability to build complex solutions that apply in multiple departments of an organization. Colleagues often share workspaces and make iterations on those workspaces. Inheriting a workspace from a colleague or working on a workspace together has often resulted in sending files and screenshots back and forth.  The Compare tool saves time and improves this collaborative experience. 

The Compare tool in FME allows you to compare two workspaces simultaneously. These differences are represented visually, allowing you to compare the two workspaces efficiently. You can copy over elements into the Editable canvas to make changes based on the differences. If you want to integrate Git into your Workbench comparison workflow, you can do so on the command line, TortoiseGit, and Sourcetree to interface directly with the Compare tool.

Where Can I Find the Compare Tool?

You can access the Compare tool through File > Compare Files.

This will open the Compare dialog. You can select two workspaces or exported custom transformers you want to compare.

How Does the Compare Tool Work?

Compare has a left (Editable) and right (Read-Only) canvas with edit controls in the middle toolbar. Toggle the Help icon in the toolbar to learn more about using the Compare tool. 

View Workspace Differences

Canvas objects are color-coded to represent their status:

• Blue highlights on the Editable canvas represent all elements present only on the left.
• Purple highlights on the Read-Only canvas represent all elements present only on the right.
• Yellow highlights appear on both canvases and represent objects present in both canvases, but with differences.
• Unhighlighted objects appear on both canvases and are identical.

Changes are also displayed below the canvas in a list:

You can filter this list By Type of Component or By Component Name using the Filter button.

Make Changes to Workspaces

You can review the changes and choose which ones to keep. You can also open individual objects and click the Edit... button to selectively change objects on the Editable canvas.

If you want to apply all the changes from an object on the Read-Only canvas to the Editable workspace, click an object and choose Copy to Left. This will copy all differences over and immediately re-compare the workspaces.