A read-only Windows desktop application for semantic XML comparison. It compares two or three documents as logical trees, matches reordered collection items, and highlights changed or missing values.
A little rough around the edges, built as a tool to do a specific task for my job.
dotnet run --project .\src\XmlCompare\XmlCompare.csprojIn VS Code, open the repository folder and press F5. The included XML Compare (WPF) launch configuration builds and starts the app with the debugger attached.
Create a self-contained Windows x64 executable with:
dotnet publish .\src\XmlCompare\XmlCompare.csproj -p:PublishProfile=SingleFileThe result is artifacts\publish\win-x64\XmlCompare.exe. It is a portable, self-contained application rather than an installer, and does not require a separate .NET installation. Published builds use built-in Generic defaults; place an optional Profiles directory beside the executable to distribute additional comparison profiles.
Every branch push and pull request is built and tested by GitHub Actions. CI does not upload build artifacts.
To publish a release, create and push a semantic version tag:
git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0Tags matching v* start the release workflow. It validates tags such as v1.2.3 or v1.2.3-beta.1, runs the build and tests, publishes the self-contained Windows x64 executable, and creates a GitHub Release with generated release notes and XmlCompare-win-x64-portable.exe attached.
Drop two or three XML files onto the window, or choose them with the file buttons.
For a quick demonstration, compare samples/catalogue-before.xml with samples/catalogue-after.xml using the Generic XML profile. The products and tags are deliberately reordered, while a small set of genuine changes demonstrates changed, added, and removed values.
Set Fixed tolerance to 0.01 for the demo. The desk price differs by only 0.005, so it is treated as equal, while the four meaningful differences remain visible. Set the tolerance back to 0 to reveal that small numeric difference as well.
Profiles teach XML Compare how to interpret a document without putting domain-specific rules in the comparison engine. They are JSON files in profiles during development. For a published executable, custom profiles can be placed in a Profiles directory beside XmlCompare.exe.
The bundled Generic.json contains conservative defaults and no document-specific rules. Copy it under a new filename to create a custom profile.
See Creating comparison profiles for a complete generic example and explanations of matching keys, composite identities, display labels, ignored paths, and numeric tolerances.
The comparison never modifies source XML files. DTD processing and external XML resolution are disabled.