Overview (Diff)

Diff
Package	Description
org.netbeans.api.diff
org.netbeans.spi.diff

Support to everything related to creation and visualization of diffs. This library allows registrations of various diff providers and visualizers and provides programatic access to their functionality.

What is New (see all changes)?

Mar 4 '10 Enhanced UI in diff views
Adding new methods to the API/SPI which create a Diff Controller capable of providing a diff view with enhanced UI.
Jul 7 '09 New DiffController API
Adding PatchUtils.java to the API. Contains two new methods - isPatch(patchFile) and applyPatch(patchFile, contextFile)
Apr 17 '07 New DiffController API
DiffController class is a successor to DiffView interface that provides more features.
Feb 21 '07 StreamSource extended
StreamSource provides more ways of defining the source (a FileObject) and can declare its editability.
May 23 '05 DiffView interface added
A controler interface, that allows to programmatically control the diff component.

Use Cases

Show a diff from action

From an action or wherever you like you can call this:

public void diff(final StreamSource local, final StreamSource remote){
    SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            try {
                DiffView view = Diff.getDefault().createDiff(local, remote);
                showDiff(view);
            } catch (IOException ex) {
                Logger.getLogger(ThisClass.class.getName()).throwing(ex);
            }
        }
    });
}
public void showDiff(final DiffView view){
    SwingUtilities.invokeLater(new Runnable() {
        public void run() {
            //create our panel with our view
            //right now I am just going to use the diff component 
            // instead of a panel
            //create a topcomponent with our panel
            DiffTopComponent tc = new DiffTopComponent(view);
            tc.setName("MY_DIFF");
            tc.setDisplayName("Some display name");
            tc.open();
            tc.requestActive();
        }
    });
}

Embeded into TopComponent

Here is a top component to display it:

public class DiffTopComponent extends TopComponent {
    /** Creates a new instance of DiffTopComponent */
    public DiffTopComponent(Component diffPanel) {
        setLayout(new BorderLayout());
        add(diffPanel, BorderLayout.CENTER);
        getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleName(
            NbBundle.getMessage(DiffTopComponent.class, 
            "ACSN_Diff_Top_Component")); // NOI18N
        
        getAccessibleContext().setAccessibleDescription(
            NbBundle.getMessage(DiffTopComponent.class, 
            "ACSD_Diff_Top_Component")); // NOI18N
    }
   
    public DiffTopComponent(DiffView view) {
        this(view.getComponent());
    }
    public int getPersistenceType(){
        return TopComponent.PERSISTENCE_NEVER;
    }
    protected String preferredID(){
        return "DiffTopComponent";    //NOI18N
    }
    public HelpCtx getHelpCtx() {
        return new HelpCtx(getClass());
    }
}

Exported Interfaces

This table lists all of the module exported APIs with defined stability classifications. It is generated based on answers to questions about the architecture of the module. Read them all...

Group of java interfaces

Interface Name	In/Out	Stability	Specified in What Document?
DiffAPI	Exported	Official
DiffImplementationAPI	Exported	Friend

Group of systemproperty interfaces

Interface Name

In/Out

Stability

Specified in What Document?

Implementation Details

Where are the sources for the module?

The sources for the module are in the NetBeans Mercurial repositories.

What do other modules need to do to declare a dependency on this one, in addition to or instead of a plain module dependency?

Nothing.

Read more about the implementation in the answers to architecture questions.

DiffOfficial