Is RTC configuration xml order relevant?
Since there are no real useful diff tools provided by IBM that allow for easy diffing of two project area configurations we decided to use an xml differ like Beyond Compare.
Since Beyond Compare is a line based differ and the xml files are not saved in a sorted manner (see this defect: https://jazz.net/jazz/resource/itemName/com.ibm.team.workitem.WorkItem/322580) I would like to know whether the configuration data order in the xml file needs to be preserved
- in general (for everything)
- only for some parts
- not at all
Background of this question is that we developed a Beyond Compare plugin that alphanumerically sorts the xml code (tags and attributes) so that diffing becomes quite easy. If the order of some xml tags/attributes is relevant then we cannot use the differ safely.
Kind regards, Marko
Since Beyond Compare is a line based differ and the xml files are not saved in a sorted manner (see this defect: https://jazz.net/jazz/resource/itemName/com.ibm.team.workitem.WorkItem/322580) I would like to know whether the configuration data order in the xml file needs to be preserved
- in general (for everything)
- only for some parts
- not at all
Background of this question is that we developed a Beyond Compare plugin that alphanumerically sorts the xml code (tags and attributes) so that diffing becomes quite easy. If the order of some xml tags/attributes is relevant then we cannot use the differ safely.
Kind regards, Marko
One answer
Hello Marko,
please refer to the schema definitions you may find in any com.ibm.team.process.common JAR file,
under schema directory.
I would say that order needs to be preserved for main parts only. Example
<xsd:element name="process-specification" block="substitution restriction">
<xsd:complexType>
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element ref="role-definitions" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
<xsd:element ref="project-configuration" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
<xsd:element ref="team-configuration" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
</xsd:sequence>
</xsd:complexType>
</xsd:element>
If you look at your PA source, you'll see:
<team-configuration>
<permissions>
I think that the order of the items defined under permission is not important (hence not currently preserved)
Hope it helps,
Eric