Hi, thanks for the response.
Yes, that's the reference I found as well. As you can see there are no examples. When you call an external comparison tool like Beyond Compare from the command line it returns a value reflecting the results of the comparison. WinDiff (as old as the hills and not support in Windows 11) and PowerShell's Compare-Object do the same thing. My expectation is that result is subsequently reflected in the TestComplete log as a pass or fail. Unfortunately, that's not happening.
If all it does is run the comparison in Beyond Compare and then force me to review an output file from Beyond Compare there is no value in that. I can just call Beyond Compare directly from a script and accomplish that task.
The feature implies you can use Beyond Compare as the comparison tool and then get the results back in TestComplete. There is value in that because Beyond Compare is content aware and can thus use a more appropriate comparison routine (e.g. it will recognize a CSV file and compare the contents of the CSV) to evaluate the files.
The Files.Compare method in TestComplete does a binary comparison only. That is very fragile since subtle formatting changes unrated to the values contained in the CSV will cause a false positive.
Like I said, the examples are given in the documentation for each of the comparisons. There's nothing else to show for Files diff.
Did you try one of the comparisons with Beyond Compare turned on? What were the results?
Hi again Marsha,
Respectfully, it's pretty clear that you have no firsthand experience with this feature. What you have to offer is redirecting me to documentation I've already seen.
I've submitted a ticket to support and will look forward to hearing back from someone that has direct knowledge of the feature.
Thanks again,
John
Hi John -
If you had answered my questions, I could have helped you troubleshoot further. Posters frequently give incomplete information and that makes it difficult to assist in resolving the question. In those cases, we have to start with basic information, like links to the documentation, to try to figure out what has actually been attempted, since "it's not working" gives us nothing to go on.
Respectfully, you have no idea what I know about TestComplete or don't.
Hi Marsha,
Likewise you have not answered my questions:
Has anyone used this feature successfully? Also, any idea if and how will it work with TextExecute?
Are you suggesting that you have used this feature? With what comparison utility? In scripts or keyword tests? Comparing which file types? In conjunction with Test Execute?
I question your knowledge/experience in this instance in part because a) You have never said you used this feature, and b) the below remark is contrary to the documentation. I don't doubt you have a great deal of experience with other aspects of TestComplete as do I.
To actually use Files diff, you need one of the comparisons that are also listed on that page
It explicitly says "Examples are WinDiff and Araxis Merge". That makes it pretty clear you are not limited to those two utilities.
Additionally, the documentation is dated (e.g. reference to the deprecated WinDiff utility), and vague. For instance, it says:
These are launching options for the utility that TestComplete will use to detect and show the difference between the baseline and actual files when comparing PDF files or arbitrary files.
It does not say how TestComplete will "show the difference between the baseline and actual files". That's a pretty significant omission.
Thanks, John
