reliability of the Developer's Toolkit compare & merge t

navdev3

I have read a number of posts from developers that indicate a preference for other compare and merge tools or for merging manually. Is the compare and merge tool in the Developer's Toolkit unreliable?

DenSter

It's not "not reliable", it has its limitations. I personally prefer to compare objects manually in text format, that just works quicker for me. I may change my mind if I actually try to work with the dev toolkit

navdev3

Can you please provide some examples of these limitations? I am just learning to use the Dev Toolkit and would like to be aware of its limitations or pitfalls - specifically in the compare and merge tool.

kine

My exp. with NDT are not good. Some older versions had problem that when you exported the objects into .txt file, keys or some properties were missing. My last experience with some newer version was, that after export the syntax of the file was corrupted (missing some parenthesis etc.) and I was unable to import it into Navision.

I use text merging when I need and I know, what I am doing, what is the result. NDT is big BLACKBOX for me, where I am not sure, if result is what I want... :-) and when there is some problem, you are very limited in what you can do with that...

It is better to do merge 6 hours in text and be sure with the result, than do it 3 hours in NDT and spend 8 another hours solving problems "just because I spend 3 hours merging that, it must work..."... 8)

kriki

I use NDT, but not completely. I use it to import the 3 starting versions and to give me the new version (I just need it to get the 3 versions together on the screen in an easy way). It helps me to see what are the differences between the 2 base versions and the old base and old customized version. With this information, it is easier to decide what to do (take the merged version, or just merge by hand). It is also faster to see what you DON'T need to check (no changes between old base and old customized) and so skip a lot of code. With this I mean that it gives me a hierarchical view of an object. So if the NDT says that there are no differences in some functions or some controls, I don't need to go in to check them.
I have to admit NDT has limitations.
It is especially week with big functions. If you put some new code in it and it resembles a little some existing code, NDT says the original code has been changed and it becomes almost impossible to control. In this case I export the objects as text to control with an external tool.

Thomas_Hviid_Thorn

Hej,

Since I'm not using the Compare&Merge part of NDT, I'm not able to comment on that part of NDT.

With that being said, I must say that I really like NDT - and uses it every day. And taking a look on the inside of the black box just made me happier ...

Especially the last version NDT SP2 seems stable to me (that is I only found one fault by now :-)).

kine

I am using it for "where used..." - it is the best function in NDT... :-)

May be it is time for me to try the last version for some upgrade merge...
8)

Miklos_Hollender

I think a text comparision tool is handy for finding out what the differences are, but manual copy-pase from one database to another - at least one of them has to be server-based, Navision does not allow to open two local databases - works best. I mean you can copy-paste table fields and it will bring carry the code, copy-paste functions and it will carry the variables and the code, copy-paste global variables etc. It's very fast.

Usually I write a short migration guide in the Documentation trigger, so we don't even have to compare. It's like:

"
- Copy-paste fields 60000-60003
- Copy global variables after the "--- customization ---" dummy variable
- Copy code tagged with //HM from OnInsert trigger"

I think this is the easiest way.

kriki

Miklos Hollender wrote:

Navision does not allow to open two local databases

You can do that, but you have to copy the client-directory and open the second DB with the copy of the client-directory.

navdev3

Thank you. Can you please provide names of other compare and/or merge tools?

kriki

navdev3 wrote:

Thank you. Can you please provide names of other compare and/or merge tools?

If you check www.tucows.com, you will find some.

Kowa

navdev3 wrote:

Thank you. Can you please provide names of other compare and/or merge tools?

This tool was supplied by Navision before NDT was introduced.
http://www.mergetool.com/

Manual merging :
http://www.scootersoftware.com/ ( BeyondCompare )
Open Source :
http://winmerge.sourceforge.net/ ( Winmerge)
http://kdiff3.sourceforge.net/ (KDiff3, for 3 input files)

My choice for a reliable 3-way automatic merge :
http://www.elliecomputing.com