This feature may be of more use to Notes administrators than developers. For example, you could use this feature to verify that the contents of the same view in different replicas of the same database are identical. You could also use it to verify that a replication formula is excluding documents from one replica of a database.

Comparing two documents in the same view
Delta provides an easy way to determine the differences between a document and a replication/save conflict, or any two documents, by way of an action that's automatically added to the Notes Actions menu when you install Delta. All you need to do is open any Notes view, select two documents in the selection margin and click on the Delta of 2 Documents option in the Actions menu shown in Figure M.

FIGURE M


Initiate a compare of two documents from the Notes Actions menu. Roll over picture for a larger image.

If you only need to compare Notes documents, NoteMan by Martin Scott is a much cheaper alternative.

Ed. note: Michael didn't originally submit this piece to us in multiple parts, but he's doing such a great job of providing complete coverage, that we're going to split it into two parts. So tune in next week for part two of Michael's coverage of Teamstudio Delta.

Jeff Chilton is a Contributing Editor for DominoPower and WebSpherePower magazines, and in his spare time serves as Vice President of Fulfillment for Echo Technology Group, Inc., an IT consulting firm that specializes in enterprise-focused best practices. Visit http://www.teametg.com for more information or email him at jchilton@teametg.com.