Idiot60
21-Dec-2011, 05:21 PM
Hi Scooter Software,
I've been pottering round with BC for awhile now and I'm still very impressed but I've got a couple of questions, but first I'll try and detail my problem before asking the question (if too long then please skip down to the questions at the end).
I have several programs outputting reports into different folders. I then wish to compare the reports to a 'master' copy I've already created/stored and then report on any differences (that haven't been listed as unimportant in the rules).
E.g. Reports written to multiple folders i.e. \Reports\Mike\ Report 1, 2, 3 then \Reports\Mary\Report 1, 2, 3
Then compare them to the masters kept elsewhere i.e. \Master\Mike Report 1, 2, 3 and \Reports\Mary\Reports 1, 2, 3
I had trouble getting the rules to apply to the CSV files so I've changed them to be opened as a MS Word Document (Tools > File Formats).
I've created and applied the rules (regarding unimportant differences) to everywhere so when I open them they don't appear as red (the rules are generally there to stop it complaining about variations in printed date/time etc).
I use the following bat file to trigger it:
bcompare.exe @CompareFoldersScript.txt
Start \Reports\Report\Audit_%Date:~10,4%-%Date:~4,2%-%Date:~7,2%.html
(the second line is to open the audit report it creates from the script)
The CompareFoldersScript.txt is as follows:
# Set up basic comparison features
criteria rules-based
# Load first comparison
load D:\Reports\Active D:\Reports\Master
#Expand to affect sub-folders and files
expand all
# Generate a report of the differences labelled with todays date
folder-report layout:side-by-side options:display-all output-to: D\Reports\Report\Audit_%date%.html output-options:html-color
Unfortunately I'm still having some troubles.
1. How can I stop the reports than only contain unimportant differences appearing as red in the HTML file? Even though it has a ≈ the text still appears as red on either side (but when I open it in BC later they all match with no red displayed). The thread title "Creating Folder Reports showing ininportant differences " by Markus W was interesting but for reply #4 step number 6 I'm unable to see an option for Enable Rules Based" has this moved or am I overlooking it? (Should I be playing with html-custom?)
2. Leading on from the above question. If a report only contains unimportant differences how can I stop it from appearing in the options:ignore-unimportant output?
3. I've tried using "options:ignore-unimportant,display-context" but I don't believe this is compatible with the folder-report type yet. Is that correct?
4. When manually comparing the two master folders haw can I get it to automatically trigger the comparison between all the files (at present they appear as red but when I drill into it they match due to the unimportant differences rule being triggered)
5. Is there any way to increase the amount of information displayed in the report comparison? If two reports don't match then display the 2 lines above and below the issue (which is possible for text-report but obviously not an ideal solution for this scenario).
6. If I did try and use the text-report option and define all the reports to be compared, how should I go about grouping or adding all the information together in a single file? I tried experimenting with append but without luck.
E.g.
bcompare.exe @CompareText.txt D:\Reports\Mike\Active\Report1 D:\Reports\Mike\Master\Report1 bob.html
bcompare.exe @CompareText.txt D:\Reports\Mike\Active\Report2 D:\Reports\Mike\Master\Report2 append bob.html
CompareText.txt
load D:\Reports\Mike\Master D:\Reports\Mike\Active
text-report layout:side-by-side &
options:ignore-unimportant,display-context &
output-to:%3 output-options:html-color %1 %2
Thanks for the help, sorry for the long note. No panic on my end as I'm probably going to disappear for a couple of weeks soon.
Thanks,
Rob.
I've been pottering round with BC for awhile now and I'm still very impressed but I've got a couple of questions, but first I'll try and detail my problem before asking the question (if too long then please skip down to the questions at the end).
I have several programs outputting reports into different folders. I then wish to compare the reports to a 'master' copy I've already created/stored and then report on any differences (that haven't been listed as unimportant in the rules).
E.g. Reports written to multiple folders i.e. \Reports\Mike\ Report 1, 2, 3 then \Reports\Mary\Report 1, 2, 3
Then compare them to the masters kept elsewhere i.e. \Master\Mike Report 1, 2, 3 and \Reports\Mary\Reports 1, 2, 3
I had trouble getting the rules to apply to the CSV files so I've changed them to be opened as a MS Word Document (Tools > File Formats).
I've created and applied the rules (regarding unimportant differences) to everywhere so when I open them they don't appear as red (the rules are generally there to stop it complaining about variations in printed date/time etc).
I use the following bat file to trigger it:
bcompare.exe @CompareFoldersScript.txt
Start \Reports\Report\Audit_%Date:~10,4%-%Date:~4,2%-%Date:~7,2%.html
(the second line is to open the audit report it creates from the script)
The CompareFoldersScript.txt is as follows:
# Set up basic comparison features
criteria rules-based
# Load first comparison
load D:\Reports\Active D:\Reports\Master
#Expand to affect sub-folders and files
expand all
# Generate a report of the differences labelled with todays date
folder-report layout:side-by-side options:display-all output-to: D\Reports\Report\Audit_%date%.html output-options:html-color
Unfortunately I'm still having some troubles.
1. How can I stop the reports than only contain unimportant differences appearing as red in the HTML file? Even though it has a ≈ the text still appears as red on either side (but when I open it in BC later they all match with no red displayed). The thread title "Creating Folder Reports showing ininportant differences " by Markus W was interesting but for reply #4 step number 6 I'm unable to see an option for Enable Rules Based" has this moved or am I overlooking it? (Should I be playing with html-custom?)
2. Leading on from the above question. If a report only contains unimportant differences how can I stop it from appearing in the options:ignore-unimportant output?
3. I've tried using "options:ignore-unimportant,display-context" but I don't believe this is compatible with the folder-report type yet. Is that correct?
4. When manually comparing the two master folders haw can I get it to automatically trigger the comparison between all the files (at present they appear as red but when I drill into it they match due to the unimportant differences rule being triggered)
5. Is there any way to increase the amount of information displayed in the report comparison? If two reports don't match then display the 2 lines above and below the issue (which is possible for text-report but obviously not an ideal solution for this scenario).
6. If I did try and use the text-report option and define all the reports to be compared, how should I go about grouping or adding all the information together in a single file? I tried experimenting with append but without luck.
E.g.
bcompare.exe @CompareText.txt D:\Reports\Mike\Active\Report1 D:\Reports\Mike\Master\Report1 bob.html
bcompare.exe @CompareText.txt D:\Reports\Mike\Active\Report2 D:\Reports\Mike\Master\Report2 append bob.html
CompareText.txt
load D:\Reports\Mike\Master D:\Reports\Mike\Active
text-report layout:side-by-side &
options:ignore-unimportant,display-context &
output-to:%3 output-options:html-color %1 %2
Thanks for the help, sorry for the long note. No panic on my end as I'm probably going to disappear for a couple of weeks soon.
Thanks,
Rob.