Perform Document Comparison

Document Comparison is a process that will compare two documents and output a document with revisions, or differences, between the two. It requires that both documents are Microsoft Office documents and that your server is a Windows server with a Microsoft Office enabled PrizmDoc license.

The following steps will walk you through the document comparison process using the PrizmDoc Application Services API. Refer to the PrizmDoc Application Services Document Comparison API section for more detailed information.

Examples in this topic:

How to create a viewingSession using Document Comparison
How to add the Original Source Document that is being used for a Comparison Viewing Session to an existing, empty Viewing Session
How to Add the revised Source Document that is being used for a Comparison Viewing Session to an existing, empty Viewing Session
How to download the Original Source Document that is being used for a Comparison Viewing Session
How to download the Revised Source Document that is being used for a Comparison Viewing Session
How to get the Revision Data from a Document Comparison Viewing Session

How to create a viewingSession using Document Comparison

Issue a POST request with the body of the request containing JSON formatted ‘source’ object. The source.type property can be a “document”, “url”, or “upload”.

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POST http://localhost:3000/ViewingSession ViewingSession POST Body Content-Type: application/json { "source": { "type": "comparison", "original": { "type": "document", "fileName": "original.docx" }, "revised": { "type": "url", "url": "http://mysite.com/documents/revised.docx" } } }

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POST http://localhost:3000/ViewingSession
ViewingSession POST Body
Content-Type: application/json
{
    "source": {
        "type": "comparison",
        "original": {
            "type": "document",
            "fileName": "original.docx"
        },
        "revised": {
            "type": "url",
            "url": "http://mysite.com/documents/revised.docx"
        }
    }
}

A successful response to the above POST provides the viewingSessionId in the response body:

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200 OK Content-Type: application/json { "viewingSessionId": "{viewingSessionId}" }

How to add the Original Source Document that is being used for a Comparison Viewing Session to an existing, empty Viewing Session

Step 1

Issue a POST as described below to create a viewingSession with no documents specified:

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POST http://localhost:3000/ViewingSession

ViewingSession POST Body

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Content-Type: application/json { "source": { "type": "upload", "displayName": "myFile.doc" } }

A successful response to the above POST provides the document data in the response body:

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200 OK Content-Type: application/json { "viewingSessionId": "{viewingSessionId}" }

Step 2

Issue a PUT as described below to upload a file to an existing viewingSession:

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PUT http://localhost:3000/v2/viewingSessions/{viewingSessionID}/sourceFile/original

ViewingSession PUT Body

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{ Binary Document Data }

A successful response to the above PUT provides a 200 OK response with no body:

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200 OK

How to Add the revised Source Document that is being used for a Comparison Viewing Session to an existing, empty Viewing Session

Step 1

Issue a POST as described below to create a viewingSession with no documents specified:

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POST http://localhost:3000/ViewingSession

ViewingSession POST Body

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Content-Type: application/json { "source": { "type": "upload", "displayName": "myFile.doc" } }

A successful response to the above POST provides the document data in the response body:

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200 OK Content-Type: application/json { "viewingSessionId": "{viewingSessionId}" }

Step 2

Issue a PUT as described below to upload a file to an existing viewingSession:

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PUT http://localhost:3000/v2/viewingSessions/{viewingSessionID}/sourceFile/revised

ViewingSession PUT Body

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{ Binary Document Data }

A successful response to the above PUT provides a 200 OK response with no body:

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200 OK

How to download the Original Source Document that is being used for a Comparison Viewing Session

Issue a GET as described below using the viewingSessionId obtained from the POST request to create a viewing session:

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GET http://localhost:3000/v2/viewingSessions/{viewingSessionId}/sourceFile/original?myFile

A successful response to the above GET provides the document data in the response body:

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200 OK Content-Type: application/msword Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=myFile.pdf { Binary Document Data }

How to download the Revised Source Document that is being used for a Comparison Viewing Session

Issue a GET as described below using the viewingSessionId obtained from the POST request to create a viewing session:

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GET http://localhost:3000/v2/viewingSessions/{viewingSessionId}/sourceFile/revised?myFile

A successful response to the above GET provides the document data in the response body:

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200 OK Content-Type: application/msword Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=myFile.pdf { Binary Document Data }

How to get the Revision Data from a Document Comparison Viewing Session

Step 1

Issue a POST request with the body of the request containing JSON formatted ‘source’ object. The source.type property can be a “document”, “url”, or “upload”.

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POST http://localhost:3000/ViewingSession

ViewingSession POST Body

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Content-Type: application/json { "source": { "type": "comparison", "original": { "type": "document", "fileName": "original.docx" }, "revised": { "type": "url", "url": "http://mysite.com/documents/revised.docx" } } }

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Content-Type: application/json
{
    "source": {
        "type": "comparison",
        "original": {
            "type": "document",
            "fileName": "original.docx"
        },
        "revised": {
            "type": "url",
            "url": "http://mysite.com/documents/revised.docx"
        }
    }
}

A successful response to the above POST provides the viewingSessionId in the response body:

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200 OK Content-Type: application/json { "viewingSessionId": "{viewingSessionId}" }

Step 2

Issue a GET request using the viewingSessionId from Step One above. Each request will return up to a limit of 100 revision data items by default. The GET request will contain a continueToken if any additional data may be available after the response is returned. You can use that continueToken in the next request to continue getting data after the ones you have already seen:

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GET http://localhost:3000/v2/viewingSessions/{viewingSessionId}/revisionData

A successful response to the above GET provides any revisions found so far, as well as, possibly, the continueToken and continueAfter items:

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200 OK Content-Type: application/json Content-Encoding: gzip { "changes": [], "continueToken": "{continueToken}", "continueAfter": 500 }

Step 3

Issue a GET request using the viewingSessionId from Step One above and with the continueToken. It is good to wait 500ms as mentioned in the GET response from the second step as well:

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GET http://localhost:3000/v2/viewingSessions/{viewingSessionId}/revisionData?continueToken={continueToken}

A successful response to the above GET provides any revisions found after the GET request in Step Two above. If there is no continueToken, then all of the data has been retrieved and returned:

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200 OK Content-Type: application/json Content-Encoding: gzip { "changes": [{revisions}] }