Altova DiffDog 2024 Enterprise Edition

Automation with DiffDog Server

Home Prev Top Next

DiffDog Server is a cross-platform differencing tool which supports, among other comparison kinds, the comparison of CSV and database data. DiffDog Server provides a command line for automated execution of comparisons. With DiffDog Server, you can either set up the comparisons jobs directly on the server, or, alternatively, run .dbdif files created with DiffDog, as described in Saving Comparison Files.

 

To run a .dbdif comparison file with DiffDog Server, supply the file path as argument to the run command, for example:

 

diffdogserver run path\to\comparison.dbdif

 

where diffdogserver is the path to the DiffDog Server executable on the Linux, macOS, or Windows machine.

 

Running *.dbdif files with DiffDog Server is most convenient if DiffDog Server runs either on the same computer as DiffDog desktop, or on a Windows machine. If DiffDog Server runs on a different machine or operating system, the following limitations apply:

 

If the comparison involves CSV files, running .dbdif files is supported only on Windows servers. For the comparison to be successful, all the CSV file paths that were valid on the desktop machine must be valid on the server machine.

If database connections are involved, the server machine must be configured and capable to handle the database connection. Namely, the database drivers and any other prerequisites required by the connection must be present on the target operating system as well. For example, if the .dbdif file includes a connection that requires an ODBC driver from the database vendor, that driver must be installed on the server machine as well. Note that some database connection methods supported on Windows are not supported on Linux and macOS. For more information, see the DiffDog Server documentation.

 

If you set up comparison jobs directly in DiffDog Server (as opposed to using *.dbdif files), you can run them regardless of the platform.

 

DiffDog Server reports the comparison outcome by means of the exit code ("0" means equal data, "1" means there are differences, and "2" indicates an error). The detailed comparison results are shown by default at the command line, but you can also get them as a file in XML, text, or SQL format. The latter format is applicable if the right side of the comparison is a database, and it consists of SQL statements that merge data from the left to the right side.

 

For more information about DiffDog Server, see the Altova website.

 

© 2017-2023 Altova GmbH