Ignore IDs During Code Compare

If any of you have done a code compare, comparing one XPO to the matching objects within the AOT, you may have noticed that in most cases the ID values of various nodes/sub-nodes don't match.  This is only partially correct, the node itself may match identically except the ID property, which doesn't cause a change in functionality anyways.  This annoyingly forces you to click through each item to verify that each node IS in fact identical.  I have developed a solution, an option to ignore these ID properties as a checkbox in the Advanced tab of the Compare form.

Let's take the Address table for example.  If we have an XPO that includes the Address table and we attempt to compare it with the object in the AOT, we will see "differences" like this:

As we can see, it shows a difference in every single field and index on the table.  What happens is when an object is exported to an XPO, it does not retain the ID values as they really don't change how it functions.  When importing from an XPO and comparing, the IDs in the XPO default to 0, thus showing the difference.

Normally this isn't a bad thing, but it gives you the feeling that there are truly differences that change the functionality.  It becomes a pain to filter through each node and double check each to see the real differences.  More often than one would think, a real difference slips by unnoticed because of the mass amount of false positives in changes, thus promoting code to Production without truly meaning to.

I proposed a solution to add an option to the SysCompareForm to ignore ID properties (as shown below).

By default, I have the checkbox checked to ignore the IDs, you may choose to change that as needed per your business's requirements.  The screenshot below shows how tidy it looks after ignoring the ID properties.

DOWNLOAD XPO HERE and Enjoy!

Bug Reported (2/27/2012): Ineffective towards EDTs and Enums, still shows the comparison.