Did you know that IntelliJ IDEA 11 Diff Tool supports some of binary contents? Now, it’s not a problem to see changes from file history or a change list. Every binary content you’re able to open in IntelliJ might be compared in Diff Tool: UML diagrams, SWF files, of course images, and much, much more.
We at JetBrains know how important it is to track what has been changed in your project from one version or revision to another. This is why IntelliJ IDEA 10.5 brings you new Diff Tools for comparing local directories, DB objects (Data Sources, Schemes, Tables). In later updates we’re planning on including even remote to local files comparison as well. Diff Tools are available via Ctrl+D, or from context menu, wherever you may need them.
Say, to compare two Data Sources (or Tables, or Schemes, come to that), all you need is select them in Data Sources tool window, and then invoke the Compare action either from context menu, or via toolbar:
Comparing two local folders is just as easy: the action is available in Project View file tree.
If you’re a lucky owner of IntelliJ IDEA 9 Ultimate Edition, you’ll be surprised to find a new action in VCS History panel: view all changes made in commit in a single dialog. This feature makes it simpler to understand what a commit author made in his change.
To start using this feature, invoke Show History action for any file, then select revision you’d like to investigate, and then click UML icon (or press Control+Shift+D).
This opens the following diff dialog:
As you can see, 3 changes are made in layout.properties, Rounded interface and RoundedButton class. By default, green color marks what was added, blue is for changed, and gray, guess what — deleted. Well, what else can we see here? RoundedButton class doesn’t extend JComponent and does not implement ButtonModel interface anymore, but instead it extends AbstractButton class and implements MouseListener and KeyListener interfaces. Also, author has changed method paint and removed method isPressed. Interface Rounded was added from scratch and some properties were modified, added and removed in layout.properties file. Double click on a node shows standard diff dialog.
You will be able to enjoy this UML-like Diff Tool in next EAPs and also in the nearest IntelliJ IDEA 9 update.
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