Using XMLDIff with Visual Studio Code

Introduction

This document describes how to use XMLDiff with Visual Studio Code.

Prerequisites

• Visual Studio Code
• XMLDiff.exe and RunXMLDiff.bat from this repository
• VSCode extension Run on Save by emeraldwalk
  

• Prepare a folders structure like the following:
  
RootExtensionFolder
│XMLDiffAndPatch
││XMLDiff.exe
│RunXMLDiff.bat
│aiscripts
│aiscripts.modified
│aiscripts.original
│md
│md.modified
│md.original

• You can skip creation *.original folders, if you will use the extracted files folder.
• Copy the RunXMLDiff.bat file to the root of your project.
• Copy the XMLDiff.exe file to the XMLDiffAndPatch folder in the root of your project.
• Install the VSCode extension Run on Save by emeraldwalk
• Open the settings of the extension by pressing Ctrl + , and search for runOnSave.commands
• Add the following configuration to the settings:
  
  
  
  • In case of not to use the "Extracted" files folder, i.e. with *.original folders:
    
    
"commands": [
{
"match": "\\.modified\\\\.+?\\.xml$",
"cmd": "${workspaceFolder}\\RunXMLDiff.bat ${file} ${workspaceFolder}\\XMLDiffAndPatch\\XMLDiff.exe
}
]

    
    
  • With the extracted folder, which is outside the project folder:
    
    
"commands": [
{
"match": "\\.modified\\\\.+?\\.xml$",
"cmd": "${workspaceFolder}\\RunXMLDiff.bat ${file} ${workspaceFolder}\\XMLDiffAndPatch\\XMLDiff.exe" ${workspaceFolder}\\..\\extracted"
}
]

    
    Take in account that with the extracted folder you still can use the *.original folders for original files. It will be used first, if they exist, otherwise the script will use the extracted folder.
    
• Save the settings and close the settings tab.
  

• <ModifiedFilePath>: The full path to the modified XML file. This parameter is mandatory.
• <XMLDiffPath>: The full path to the XMLDiff.exe utility. This parameter is mandatory.
• [OriginalFilesPath]: The full path to the directory containing the original XML files. This parameter is optional.
  

• Extract Type and Filename: The script extracts the type (e.g., aiscript or md) and filename from the modified file path.
• Determine Target File Path: The script constructs the target file path by removing .modified from the modified file path.
• Determine Original File Path:
• If the OriginalFilesPath is provided, the original file path is constructed as OriginalFilesPath\type\filename.
• If the OriginalFilesPath is not provided, the original file path is constructed by replacing .modified with .original in the modified file path.
• Check Existence:
• The script checks for the existence of XMLDiff.exe, the modified file, the original file, and the target file directory.
• Run XMLDiff: If all checks pass, the script runs XMLDiff.exe with the appropriate parameters to generate the diff file.
  

• XMLDiff.exe is not found at the specified path.
• The modified file is not found at the specified path.
• The original file is not found at the constructed path.
• The target file directory does not exist.
  

• Ensure that the XMLDiff.exe utility is accessible and has the necessary permissions to execute.
• The script assumes that the modified file path follows the convention where the last folder in the path is of the form type.modified.
• If you have some beautification plugins for XML use the alternative save (Ctrl + K S, i.e. "Save without Formatting), which will not involve them, to get the diff as small as possible.