Third-party file compare tool is something you need to do a document version control, e.g. finding changes that were made and giving some comments about changing. The kind of comment might be "approve" or "reject" or probably some comments that will give an idea about what modifications were made and how do they affect the further process of development of some tool.
It's quite easy to use compare tool as a stand-alone application, but nowadays it is necessary to integrate all tools into document management environment that you already have.
The most simple is a case, where you don't use any specify document management or version control system and the only thing that you need is to have an ability to run compare tool quickly. In this case the best integration you can get is having a compare tool listed in a context menu. For instance, if you select two files to compare and then right-click on them to have a context menu, you will see an option that will sounds like "Compare with some tool...". You will probably not need this kind of option, if you right-click only at one file or if you right-clock on more than two files.
The next stage of integration involves running the third-party compare tool from your document management system. Again, it's not very hard, as the most popular document management systems (DMS) have a built-in mechanism for integration, so called "command line" interface (also know as cdm-interface). In terms of usage, you will probably need to specify the location of third-party compare tool, then specify how do you want parameters to be passed. It's enough to pass the names of two files, but sometime it's really a good idea to pass more parameters, such as compare options.
The question is - in what way you wish to have the results of comparison. First option, your DMS system can run an external diff tool and pass file names to compare as a parameters, as a result you will be working with compare program using its own interface. Another option, is when third-party compare program doesn't run in interface mode, but compare two files silently and generates a resulted report.
If the result of comparison is represented as an open-format report, then you are free to use it in any process that involve automated comparison. It is handy when you need to do a quality assurance which involve machine-based testing and don't need human reaction.
Finally, let us talk about compatibility aspect. You document management system might be running not on Windows server, but on some Unix computer. Or even more, you might access all your files through the network or using web access. What about using third-party compare tool in this case? Actually, it is still possible, if your diff tool can generate compare reports as a html file. In this case your DMS system can be configured to pass your parameters to compare tool automatically and represent you an html report. As long as html files are not depended on the actual environment, you will have a great option to use compare results for further work.
By: Sam Miller