jQuery.PrettyTextDiff

A wrapper around Google's diff_match_patch library. Google's library is awesome and can be fine-tuned in multiple ways, but their API is a bit awkward, probably cause they support the same API in 8 different languages.

Also, the library does not provide any beautification of the diff-ed output. They provide a reference implementation (look for diff_prettyHtml in the API docs ) but recommend developers to write their own - and the given method is not customizable .

This library is an alternative to embedding 30+ lines of cryptic JS in your code. In short, it tries to bridge the gap between the awesome diff_match_patch library and a simple user-experience.

This blog post explains things in a bit more detail.

Demo

jsfiddle demo

Download

From the jQuery plugins site.

Usage

First, include the libraries

• include jquery.js, diff_match_patch.js and jquery.pretty-text-diff.js in your page, something like:

<script src="/path/to/jquery.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/path/to/diff_match_patch.js" type="text/javascript"></script>
<script src="/path/to/deal_override_requests.min.js" type="text/javascript"></script>

Next sprinkle a bit of JS

• something like:

  $(selector).prettyTextDiff({
    // options
  });

Check out the customizable options below.

Optionally, style the diff

• Style <ins> and <del> as much as you want. A simple example is in the jsfiddle demo.

Customizable options

• Either mark up your HTML to use the default selectors, or use these options:

Development

• Install node and npm (comes with node now)
• Install coffeescript and uglify: npm install -g coffee-script uglify-js
• cake build to produce the output JS (minified)
• Increment the version in the coffeescript (and compiled/minified) javascript source and the jquery-json file.
• git tag x.y.z
• Push: git push && git push --tags

Contributing

• Fork this repo
• create a feature/bugfix branch: git checkout -b branch_name
• Develop
  • Just change the coffeescript source. When your PR is merged, I will generate the JS flavors and update the versioning.
• Push to your repo: git push origin branch_name
• Submit a PR

License

Copyright (c) 2013 Arnab Deka. Licensed under MIT LICENSE for details.