Diff tool for Lotus Notes

Question

Is there any diff tool for Lotus Notes that lets you compare scripts, design elements, and documents?

Answer 1

If all else fails (and “everything else”, I mean often a ridiculous corporate procurement system), you can always export to DXL (or a design synonym for code alone) and use any decent text editor with a diff function. This is not TeamStudio Delta, but it will take you where you want to go.

Answer 2

There is a tool from TeamStudio called Delta: http://www.teamstudio.com/products/delta.html

Answer 3

I see that this is an old question, and most of the other answers are a bit outdated now, so I thought that I would add, hopefully, valuable information for those who should stumble upon this now.

In Domino Designer, open either Navigator or Package Explorer (Window menu → Show Eclipse Views). Here you can expand the databases / templates to see the design elements that they contain. Select two or three elements (CTRL-click). They can be in different databases or in one database. Right-click on one of the elements and select "Compare with →".

You can also compare two database items by item by selecting two databases / templates, right-clicking and selecting “Compare with → to each other”. You will then get the differences between the two databases listed. You will be able to see which elements differ between two databases, and which elements exist in one database and not in another. By double-clicking on another item, you open the diff tool, which allows you to see the differences by line, and you can easily copy the changes from left to right or from right to left.

Answer 4

There is a free OpenNTF tool that does document matching: http://www.openntf.org/Projects/pmt.nsf/ProjectLookup/Compare%20Notes%20Documents

Ytria also has a product that, among other things, will compare data documents (I don't think it compares design elements).

http://www.ytria.com/website.nsf/WebPageRequest/Solutions_scanEZ_specen

And, I believe Martin Scott ( http://www.martinscott.com ) has a similar product that compares documents.

Answer 5

DDE (Domino Designer on Eclipse) allows you to compare design elements natively. Same as search. It is quite efficient (faster than DXL export) and it is free.

Answer 6

I talked a bit about my blog about this:

http://rosshawkins.net/archive/2009/12/24/notesdomino-refactoringanalysis-tools.aspx

However, what I did in the past in the past is to export the design to the file system and use standard text tools (WinMerge and SublimeText for me personally) to do what I need.

The ability to make a raw dump is something that was added with an Eclipse-based designer, and not too obvious, but you can read about it here:

rosshawkins.net/archive/2010/01/20/searching-the-contents-of-notesdomino-design-elements.aspx

(the link is damaged, because my report is too low to send 2 links in one message!)

Answer 7

Teamstudio Delta is really nice. However, this can kill you with too many details. As Ross noted, Domino Designer 8.5 can use the Diff tool inherited from Eclipse. You can also go to http://www.openntf.org and look for the DXLMagic project. It can generate a report that shows the differences (including code) between two databases (usually a template and its variant). It is not as complete as Delta, but it shows the basic things. It is free and the source is included (Disclaimer: I wrote it).

Answer 8

This is what I do. I am launching a brief overview of a database project using Designer Notes. Dump the file to a text file. You can split the synopsis into different objects, such as agents, forms, views, etc. You can then run UNIX / Linux / Mac Unix commands to compare items. By performing this operation, you will find out which code is active and have a complete documented source code. You do a lot of csplit and some sed commands.