UML Designer User's Guide

Hierarchical Change Browser

The Hierarchical Change Browser is a specialized UML Designer browser you can use to compare and reconcile the differences between editions of an element. This browser is particularly useful in a situation where different developers have been working on different editions of the same model, and you now want to merge the editions together into a single consistent edition.

To open the Hierarchical Change Browser, select an element in the Relationships Browser and then do one of the following:


Hierarchical Change Browser

The top left pane of the Hierarchical Change Browser shows which two editions are being compared.

The top right pane of the browser lists, in a hierarchical tree view, all of the elements that differ between the two editions being compared. The hierarchical view arranges the elements according to their parent-child relationships (for example, message specifications appear below the protocol they belong to).

Any element that changed between the two editions being compared appears in the list. This change can either be a change in the element's own contents, or a change in the contents of a subelement it contains. For example, if the text of a use case has changed, the use case appears in the list with the text listed below it.

Browsing and reconciling differences

When you select an element from the list, the bottom two panes of the browser compare the contents of the two editions. The bottom left pane lists the contents of the current edition; the bottom right pane lists the contents of the alternate edition. These contents include the element's links to other elements (including contained elements); for a text element, the browser also shows the actual text so you can compare the changes. Use the scroll bars to scroll through the lists.

To find differences between the two editions, click on the Next Difference button. Each time you click on Next Difference, the browser highlights the next location where the contents of the two panes differ. This can be an element that appears in one edition and not in the other, or an element that has changed between the two editions.

In order to reconcile two editions, for each difference you must decide which of the editions you prefer. If you want to stay with the currently loaded edition, you do not need to do anything; however, you might want to click on Remove From List to hide the highlighted entries (this does not change anything in the actual elements, but it helps to reduce clutter in the browser).

If you want to switch to the alternate edition, click on Load Alternative. This changes the currently loaded edition so it matches the alternate edition (with respect to the selected difference).


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