.NET & XML

The XDL Diffgram format

Despite its similar name and appearance, this XML format is not directly related to the Diffgram format used in ADO.NET. The XDL Diffgram contains a list of the changes made to the original document. The root element of the XDL Diffgram, xd:xmldiff, has a namespace of http://schemas.microsoft.com/xmltools/2002/xmldiff. Its attributes are listed below:

version

Indicates the version of the XDL Diffgram format being used.

srcDocHash

Provides a hashed value which is used to verify that the XML document the Diffgram is being used to patch is the same as the original XML document used to generate the Diffgram.

options

Contains the names of the XmlDiffOptions passed into the XmlDiff constructor, if any. The names are separated by spaces.

fragments

If the value is yes, the Diffgram contains differences between XML nodes. If the value is no, the Diffgram contains differences between XML documents.

xmlns:xd

Indicates the XML namespace URI for the xd: prefix.

The xd:diffgram element may have any number of xd:node child nodes. Each xd:node element represents a node in the original document that has changed in the changed document, or the position of a new or deleted node in the changed document. The xd:node element’s match attribute contains a path descriptor for the node.

Although they look similar, the XDL path syntax is not XPath. XDL paths are based on the original XML document after it has been loaded into a DOM tree. An XDL path consists of a combination ...