Release Comparison Reports

Use this report to compare tables contained in one release within an environment with tables in a different release in an environment. The release and the environment should be different (if they are the same, the report shows no net differences). However, the environments can be the same.

Release comparison reports are created through the user interface as Microsoft Excel files that may be saved or printed.

The report shows the following comparison results:
  • Deleted - a rule exists in the compared to table, but has been deleted from the from table
  • Added - the rule only exists in the from table
  • Changed - the rule exists in both the to and from tables, but has been changed in the from table
Even if only one field is different, the entire rule is listed to provide rule context when reviewing the differences.
Use the following steps to generate a release comparison report:
  1. Choose the comparing from environment or the new environment and the release for the comparing from environment report.

    If there are multiple environments whose order is lower, the system uses the oldest environment and the last updated timestamp when it displays the oldest environment. The latest release from the selected environment is defaulted in the releases list. The default selection can be changed for the comparing from environment. If the environment selection is changed, the list of releases changes.

  2. Select either the comparing to environment or the original environment and select the Release from the list of releases of the selected environment.

    Select comparing to environment or the original environment and the release from the list of releases for the selected environment. The comparing to environment defaults to the environment that is lowest in the promotion order on the list.

    If there are multiple environments whose order is lower, the system uses the last updated timestamp to determine the oldest environment. Releases for the defaulted environment display. The originator or base release is defaulted in the list of releases.

    Comparing to environment can be changed from the default selection. If the environment selection changes, the list of releases also changes. If the comparing to environment or the new environment and the comparing to environment or the original environment are the same, the release selected cannot be the same because the comparison results would be the same for the same releases in the same environment.

  3. Display the summary details.

    The summary details screen displays the selections that result from step 1 and step 2 of the wizard.

    The comparison report can be invoked from this step. It displays the report of all the tables in the selected releases.

    To generate this report, click invoke report

    The file format for this report is compatible with Microsoft Excel spreadsheets. The report is returned to an internet browser using a mime-type application/vnd.ms-excel. An internet browser offers the choice of either opening the file or saving it to the local file system. To open it, choose an application, such as Microsoft Excel, that can process the file format. If the file is saved to the local file system it must be saved with file a extension of .xls.