Use of Process Package Comparison Editor with Three-way Compare

These notes will help you interpret the results of a three-way compare.

  • The following icons indicate changes in a three-way compare:
    		A blue left-pointing arrow containing [+] indicates an element added in the right hand revision (as compared with the common ancestor).
    		A blue left-pointing arrow containing [-] indicates an element removed in the right hand revision (as compared with the common ancestor).
    		A plain blue left-pointing arrow indicates an element changed in the right hand revision (as compared with the common ancestor).
    		A grey right-pointing arrow containing [+] indicates an element added in the left hand revision (as compared with the common ancestor).
    		A grey right-pointing arrow containing [-] indicates an element removed in the left hand revision (as compared with the common ancestor).
    		A plain grey right-pointing arrow indicates an element changed in the left hand revision (as compared with the common ancestor).
    		Red arrows pointing both ways indicate a conflict: the element or its descendents were changed in both the left hand revision and the right hand revision.
  • If you hover the cursor over the relevant icon, tooltip pop-ups will let you know that the information was added to the left or deleted to the right - so you may have added something, or the other version may have deleted something.

    In a three-way compare, you can distinguish whether an additional element was caused by an addition by someone else or a deletion by you. This is because the comparison can check whether the additional element existed in the common ancestor, and if it did not, then you will know whether you have changed it or whether it was another user.

  • In the Comparison view, you see Information elements (as indicated by the icon. These elements are always shown regardless of whether there are any differences in the data that they represent. This is to give you a context for given elements and usually will contain the 2 or 3 major configurations for that element (such as task type, name and so on).
  • Internal Properties (found at the level below a task, for example) is used to group a number of smaller changes made as the result of your main change/s under one heading. You are unlikely to need to examine these, but if you do want to see them in more detail select the button above and to the right of the left/right content view.
  • The central section of the comparison view shows connection lines between correlating objects on the left and right side. These include icons according to what the difference is (and on the side of the connection line where the change that caused the difference was made). The lines are colour coded to indicate the type of change that they represent (red=conflicting change, green=addition or deletion, blue = existing element changed).