Tool or library for comparing xml files [closed]

Question

I am looking for an XML comparing tool that understands xml. It cannot be a line by line comparision like WinMerge or Beyond Compare.

An ideal solution would be one that shows changes similar to the way Word 2007 shows track changes. DeltaXML does this, but does not come with a real GUI 'out of the box' and is $500 per user!:

http://i41.tinypic.com/os8k5k.jpg

ExamXml works out of the box but displays the differences in a confusing manner. It does not have a concept of before and after, it just shows the differences:

alt text http://www.a7soft.com/images/examxml1_.gif

The tool should have the concept of using attributes as a key, so that it does not think that a reordered list of elements has changed. DeltaXML does this but I failed to set it up correctly for the screen shot.

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UPDATE:

So far ExamlXML is the best out of the box solution. But it lacks the change management concepts of DeltaXML. Resulting in some usability problems.

DeltaXML is pretty much the solution I need, but something with more functionality out of the box would be better. DeltaXML requires writing java code to call the api, along with writing XSL to transform the xml into the expected input.

Answer 1

Beyond Compare is excellent as @BobbyShaftoe has already mentioned. For merging however, I like to use Araxis Merge. We use it for similar purposes quite often.

As far as your comment about the nontechnical ability of your users:

Thanks for the Responses... But these all seem too technical. My users normally do not see the xml tags because their XML authoring tool abstracts them away. Are there any tools that display differences in the text content, but do not show (or de-emphazise) the xml tags.

I'm going to throw this out there: your users should learn. If you have them merging and changing XML files - I'm assuming potentially for record keeping or application configuration - then they should have at least a rudimentary understanding of what they're doing. They don't have to be XML whizzes to use the tools listed and get the job done.

If, however, requiring your users to have a rudimentary knowledge of the job they are doing is impossible, then I would suggest writing a configuration utility yourself and delivering it for your end users, rather than relying on 3rd party software.