Term: SmartCompare (intelligent comparison)
In order to create meaningful versioning and associated documentation, it is not "just" enough to be able to enter comments on a new version. It is also important that the changes to the previous version (and those even further back) are recorded and, in the best case, compared graphically. This is exactly what SmartCompare from octoplant does. All changes made can be automatically determined and individually annotated.
octoplant offers a SmartCompare for the most common automation systems and the number of devices supported by is constantly growing. Most of these SmartCompares can be configured to the individual requirements of, which is illustrated here using the Simatic S7 SmartCompare as an example.
Example: Simatic S7
The basis is a component with a project. Only then can a comparator configuration be saved for the project.
The comparator configuration can be opened component-specifically in the UserClient using the Component configuration dialog, but also additionally in the Job configuration area in the AdminClient.
The configuration allows you to store a separate configuration for each program path and thus adapt the comparison to your own requirements.
Here is an overview of the options that can be changed:
- Which program path should the configuration be applied to?
- Which blocks can be excluded from the comparison?
- Should data blocks be compared for their content (useful to realize monitoring of special variables)?
- Should hardware changes be included in the comparison?
- Which Simatic-S7 specific features are still relevant for versioning?
The result for the comparison of versions or a version with a backup looks like this:
The complete comparison is displayed on the right in the top image in a clear change tree, which allows to get a summary of what has been changed in the project. The differences can be displayed in detail by selecting them. In order to increase the readability of the project change, the differences are prepared and displayed graphically as far as possible.
A separate, specific reason for change can be given for each difference in order to document important program changes in a way that everyone can understand.