Specifying Comparisons
To invoke a comparison you POST parameters to the specified DITA Compare pipeline, in either JSON or XML form.
Comparison Example
Here is a simple synchronous example (asynchronous comparison is detailed in more detail on this page):
Request (XML)
<comparison>
<inputA type="file">
<path>/usr/local/deltaxml/DeltaXML-DocBook-Compare-11_0_0/resources/inputA.xml</path>
</inputA>
<inputB type="file">
<path>/usr/local/deltaxml/DeltaXML-DocBook-Compare-11_0_0/resources/inputB.xml</path>
</inputB>
<configuration type="file">
<path>/usr/local/deltaxml/DeltaXML-DocBook-Compare-11_0_0/resources/config.xml</path>
</configuration>
</comparison>Request (JSON)
{
"inputA": {
"type": "file",
"path": "/usr/local/deltaxml/DeltaXML-DocBook-Compare-11_0_0/resources/inputA.xml"
},
"inputB": {
"type": "file",
"path": "/usr/local/deltaxml/DeltaXML-DocBook-Compare-11_0_0/resources/inputB.xml"
},
"configuration": {
"type": "file",
"path": "/usr/local/deltaxml/DeltaXML-DocBook-Compare-11_0_0/resources/config.xml"
}
}The response below indicates the comparison result, in this case a DocBook file describing the changes between the inputs specified in the request.
Response
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN" "http://missing.deltaxml.com/non-existent.dtd">
<article>
<title>Article Title</title>
<sect1>
<title>
<phrase revisionflag="deleted">Section1</phrase>
<phrase revisionflag="added">Section2</phrase> Title
</title>
<para>This file points to a non-existent dtd in its DOCTYPE. This forces it to use the catalog and therefore check that it works</para>
</sect1>
</article>Comparison Model
When specifying a comparison, these are the various available objects:
Object | Description | |
|---|---|---|
inputA (required) | Input A to the comparison. See this page for the various I/O types available. | |
inputB (required) | Input B to the comparison. See this page for the various I/O types available. | |
configuration | Configuration to the comparison See this page for the various I/O types available. | |
catalog | File path or HTTP URI pointing to catalog file(s). See this page for the various I/O types available. | |
async | output | Specification of where the comparison result will be written. See this page for the various I/O types available. |
callback | URL that will be polled after the comparison is complete. See Callbacks in Async for more information. | |
Form Input
In addition to requests in structured XML or JSON format, multipart/form-data can also be used.
For example:
Request
POST /api/docbook-compare/v1/compare/topic
Content-Type: multipart/form-data; boundary=boundary-id
Content-Length: number_of_bytes_in_entire_request_body
--boundary-id
Content-Disposition: file; filename="file1.xml"
Content-Size: 98344
Content-Type: application/xml
... XML ...
--boundary-id
Content-Disposition: file; filename="file2.xml"
Content-Size: 92224
Content-Type: application/xml
... XML ...
--boundary-id
Content-Disposition: file; filename="configuration.xml"
Content-Size: 32224
Content-Type: application/xml
... XML ...
--boundary-id
Content-Disposition: form-data; name="async"
true
--boundary-id
The following table describes the parts that can make up the form-data:
Parameter | Description and example usage |
|---|---|
inputA (required) | Input A Can be specified in either a file path, a HTTP URI, or raw XML |
inputB (required) | Input B Can be specified in either a file path, a HTTP URI, or raw XML |
configuration | Configuration file Can be specified in either a file path, a HTTP URI, or raw XML |
catalog | File path or HTTP URI pointing to catalog file(s). |
async | Whether async comparison is used. Default value if not specified: false |
output | An optional file path to write the output to when using async. E.g. "/Users/exampleUser/Documents/test.xml" |
callback | Callback URL called after comparison is complete. Note : only used with asynchronous comparisons. See this page. |