Plug in to Content Compare

Content Compare is the easy way to compare your content and see results marked up in a valid document, and now it is even easier with specific mark up for your favourite editors; Framemaker and Arbortext. The latest version adds not only support for more editors but also now handles metadata within your documents. Time to take another look at Content Compare for your organisation.

Plug in and go

Yes, it is that simple. Post your two files for comparison and take the resulting file into Framemaker or Arbortext to see the changes and process them there. Importantly, Content Compare keeps a valid schema so your document will render correctly, making it easy to understand the context of the changes presented. We already have markup for another editor, OxygenXML, but if you have another favourite editor, please let us know and we’ll see if we can develop a specific markup for that editor too.

Why is metadata important?

Metadata is an important aspect of many XML grammars for searching, mining or extracting content, so retaining this information and its position in the relevant place is key. We have updated the way we compare the content to accommodate metadata in two ways; Block-level and Inline.

Block-level

Prior to these updates, block-level metadata was handled in the same way as the rest of the document. The updates modify the way that block-level metadata is handled so that the result contains only the metadata present in the second, or B, document. This is to ensure that any changes marked in the metadata don’t interfere with downstream processes, such as automated submission of journal articles, for example. Block-level metadata is treated as an entire subtree, there is no nested ‘document content’ within the subtree of a top-level metadata element. This type of metadata is typically present at the start of a document and provides information about the document as a whole, such as creation dates, authors, addresses, etc.

Input A Snippet

<article>
  <front>
    <article-meta>
      <article-version>A meta data last revision post-conference</article-meta>
    </article-meta>
    ...
  </front>
  ..
</article>

Input B Snippet

<article>
  <front>
    <article-meta>
      <article-version>Changed meta data</article-meta>
    </article-meta>
    ...
  </front>
  ..
</article>

Previous result (showing oXygen tracked changes as the output)

<article>
  <front>
    <article-meta>
      <article-version><?oxy_delete author="johnsmith" timestamp="20230228T150958+0000" content="A meta data last revision post-conference"?><?oxy_insert_start author="johnsmith" timestamp="20230228T150958+0000"?>Changed
            meta data<?oxy_insert_end?></article-meta>
    </article-meta>
    ...
  </front>
  ..
</article>

Latest result

<article>
  <front>
    <article-meta>
      <article-version>Changed meta data</article-meta>
    </article-meta>
    ...
  </front>
  ..
</article>

Inline

Inline metadata is handled slightly differently from block-metadata. Because the value of a metadata element may be limited to a specific form (e.g. a valid date format), changes are not represented within the element itself, as this could lead to invalidities. Instead, a changed inline metadata element is duplicated, displaying a version from each of the inputs that the change can be shown without potentially breaking the formatting of the value inside the element.

Input A Snippet

<p>Some interesting text here pointing to:
      <inline-supplementary-material xlink:title="material_title" xlink:href="ref">
        Exciting Material Here
      </inline-supplementary-material>
      More interesting text.</p>

Input B Snippet

<p>Some interesting text here pointing to:
      <inline-supplementary-material xlink:title="material_title" xlink:href="ref">
        New Material Here
      </inline-supplementary-material>
      More interesting text.</p>

Previous result (showing oXygen tracked changes as the output)

<p>Some interesting text here pointing to:
      <inline-supplementary-material xlink:title="material_title" xlink:href="ref">
        <?oxy_delete author="johnsmith" timestamp="20230228T150958+0000" content="Exciting"?><?oxy_insert_start author="johnsmith" timestamp="20230228T150958+0000"?>New<?oxy_insert_end?> Material Here
      </inline-supplementary-material>
      More interesting text.</p>

Latest result (showing oXygen tracked changes as the output)

<p>Some interesting text here pointing to:
      <?oxy_delete author="johnsmith" timestamp="20230228T150958+0000" content="<inline-supplementary-material xlink:title="material_title" xlink:href="ref">
        Exciting Material Here
      </inline-supplementary-material>"?>
      <?oxy_insert_start author="johnsmith" timestamp="20230228T150958+0000"?>
      <inline-supplementary-material xlink:title="material_title" xlink:href="ref">
        New Material Here
      </inline-supplementary-material>
      <?oxy_insert_end?>
      More interesting text.</p>

How do I use Content Compare?

Register on our website to get your 90 day free trial of any Content Compare product. Once you have your trial, you can use the REST API to build into your code or workflow, made easy with our Postman collection. Don’t worry if this is new to you, there are lots of easy to follow documentation, and our technical experts are always on hand to help.

Get Content Compare today?

Ready to compare your content? Head over the the Content Compare product you wish to trial and click the free trial button. Change matters to Content Compare and now you can see it in your favourite editors.

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