How to compare two similar xml documents ignoring node text values by using XMLUnit?

I have two different XML documents below and please note that they are having the same basic structure (schema).

Source XML
<root>    <name>String</name>    <description>String</description> </root>

Test XML
<root>    <name>Test</name>    <description></description> <!-- it is an empty node --> </root>

And I build this snippet function to compare those two XML documents.
import org.custommonkey.xmlunit.Diff; import org.custommonkey.xmlunit.Difference; import org.custommonkey.xmlunit.IgnoreTextAndAttributeValuesDifferenceListener; import org.custommonkey.xmlunit.XMLUnit; public static void main(String args[]) throws FileNotFoundException,            SAXException, IOException, ParserConfigurationException, XPathExpressionException {        String strSource = "<root><name>String</name><description>String</description></root>";        String strTest = "<root><name>Test</name><description></description></root>";        Document docSource = stringToXMLDocument(strSource);        Document docTest = stringToXMLDocument(strTest);        boolean result = isMatched(docSource, docTest);        if(result){            System.out.println("Matched!");        }else{            System.out.println("Un-matched!");        }    } public static boolean  isMatched(Document xmlSource, Document xmlCompareWith) {        XMLUnit.setIgnoreWhitespace(true);        XMLUnit.setIgnoreComments(true);        XMLUnit.setIgnoreAttributeOrder(true);        XMLUnit.setNormalizeWhitespace(true);        XMLUnit.setIgnoreDiffBetweenTextAndCDATA(true);        Diff myDiff = new Diff(xmlSource, xmlCompareWith);        myDiff.overrideDifferenceListener(new IgnoreTextAndAttributeValuesDifferenceListener());        return myDiff.similar();    } public static Document stringToXMLDocument(String str) throws   ParserConfigurationException, SAXException, IOException{    DocumentBuilderFactory docBuilderFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();    docBuilderFactory.setNamespaceAware(true);    DocumentBuilder docBuilder = docBuilderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();    Document document = docBuilder.parse(new InputSource(new StringReader(str)));    return document; }


And here is the Maven dependency
<dependency>  <groupId>xmlunit</groupId>  <artifactId>xmlunit</artifactId>  <version>1.6</version> </dependency>

I am expecting those two XML documents are the same, but the function always returns false. Are there any ways that I can ignore the node text value when comparing two XML structures?
As you can see, I already used IgnoreTextAndAttributeValuesDifferenceListener, but I still got the problem.

Welcome to CodeRanch!

I'm not familiar with XMLUnit, but could it be that you have to set options like whether to normalize whitespace, before you parse the documents?

At any rate, you may first want to debug the documents you parsed by checking the properties of docSource and docTest and see where they are different.

There is a fundamental and conceptual difference between <description>String</description> and <description></description> which is that the length (via say .getLength()) of the child nodes being 1 for the former whereas being 0 in the latter. If you check the source code of IgnoreTextAndAttributeValuesDifferenceListener class, you would see that that length is being checked and any difference would be considered as a Difference - for good reason, though, but it would result in some inconvenience to the user in use case like yours.

I already used IgnoreTextAndAttributeValuesDifferenceListener, but I still got the problem.

That setting points to a different functionality. If it were checking <description>String</description> and <description>Str</description>, it would be fine and a match would be obtained. But not the case as discussed above.

Some would take the approach of writing one's own Listener. I can point you to an example:
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/28737977/ignore-text-differences-when-comparing-xml-with-xmlunit
The way of writing it is modeling the source code of IgnoreTextAndAttributeValuesDifferenceListener and just modifying the bit of checking getLength bit mentioned above. I see no reason to repeat those kinds of answer, probably repeated all over.

I can propose my approach which is based on preprocessor using xslt. I think this approach is more powerful and versatile and conceptually clearer. XMLUnit has built-in xslt support which actually tacitly aims at resolving a much bigger classes of differences not easily resolved using the build-in Listeners and/or their extension by subclassing. Differences between xml files and/or text files, ... are difficult problem in general, mathematically like ... (I refrain from putting a name of some topic, risking to make people wondering), so vast but not necessarily very rewarding !

Here is how.

First you write a short xslt stylesheet, let's say, _ignoreText.xsl placing in the right directory of course, like this.
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform"> <xsl:output method="xml" encoding="utf-8" omit-xml-declaration="yes" indent="no" /> <xsl:template match="*|@*|text()|comment()|processing-instruction()"> <xsl:copy> <xsl:apply-templates select="*|@*|text()|comment()|processing-instruction()" /> </xsl:copy> </xsl:template> <xsl:template match="text()" /> </xsl:stylesheet>

Then you modify your classes, adding import of org.custommonkey.xmlunit.Transform and also catching javax.xml.transform.TransformerException.
   public static void main(String args[]) throws FileNotFoundException,            SAXException, IOException, ParserConfigurationException, XPathExpressionException,            TransformerException {        String xsltfilename="_ignoreText.xsl";        File xsltfile=new File(xsltfilename);        String strSource = "<root><name>String</name><description>String</description></root>";        String strTest = "<root><name>Test</name><description></description></root>";        Document docSource = stringToXMLDocument((new Transform(strSource, xsltfile)).getResultString());        Document docTest = stringToXMLDocument((new Transform(strTest, xsltfile)).getResultString());  //can safe but for general purpose        boolean result = isMatched(docSource, docTest);        if(result){            System.out.println("Matched!");        }else{            System.out.println("Un-matched!");        }    }
Then you are good to go.

Hi,

I worked recently on XMLUnit and will try to help. First of all I used XMLUnit 2.x, so would request you to use that.  Please add below dependencies
<dependency>
<groupId>org.xmlunit</groupId>
<artifactId>xmlunit-core</artifactId>
<version>2.2.1</version>
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.xmlunit</groupId>
<artifactId>xmlunit-matchers</artifactId>
<version>2.2.1</version>
</dependency>

Now add a difference evaluator like this if you want to ignore for only one element ..let's say description

public class DefaultDifferenceEvaluator implements DifferenceEvaluator { @Override public ComparisonResult evaluate(Comparison comparison, ComparisonResult outcome) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub if (outcome != ComparisonResult.EQUAL) { if (ComparisonType.CHILD_NODELIST_SEQUENCE == comparison.getType()) { return ComparisonResult.EQUAL; } String controlNodeName = comparison.getControlDetails().getTarget().getNodeName(); String testNodeName = comparison.getTestDetails().getTarget().getNodeName(); if ("#text".equals(testNodeName) && "#text".equals(controlNodeName)) { Node parentControlNode = comparison.getControlDetails().getTarget().getParentNode(); Node parentTestNode = comparison.getTestDetails().getTarget().getParentNode(); String parentControlNodeName = ((parentControlNode == null) ? "" : parentControlNode.getNodeName()); String parentTestNodeName = ((parentControlNode == null) ? "" : parentTestNode.getNodeName()); if ("description".equals(parentTestNodeName) && "description".equals(parentControlNodeName)) { return ComparisonResult.EQUAL; } } } return outcome; } }


Now add a difference evaluator like this if you want to ignore for only one element ..let's say description

public class DefaultDifferenceEvaluator implements DifferenceEvaluator { @Override public ComparisonResult evaluate(Comparison comparison, ComparisonResult outcome) { // TODO Auto-generated method stub if (outcome != ComparisonResult.EQUAL) { if (ComparisonType.CHILD_NODELIST_SEQUENCE == comparison.getType()) { return ComparisonResult.EQUAL; } String controlNodeName = comparison.getControlDetails().getTarget().getNodeName(); String testNodeName = comparison.getTestDetails().getTarget().getNodeName(); if ("#text".equals(testNodeName) && "#text".equals(controlNodeName)) { return ComparisonResult.EQUAL; } } return outcome; } }
FYI - I am writing a story at medium on XMLUnit , you can refer that too. Please feel free to reach me out by commenting on my story if you need any help or complete code.

https://medium.com/@brijeshkp2000/super-easy-quick-xml-comparison-in-java-without-xsd-xmlunit-based-solution-6fd63935d161

@Brijesh - thanks for the explanation.
Do you have the full code anywhere (Say Git) to use this feature?