Design and Implementation for Report Layout Merging

Abstract

Merge tools are an increasingly used feature in collaborative environments. Being able to combine versions gives greater access to contributors as they can work independently on the same work. However, merge tools for working with data beyond textual comparisons have less research devoted to them. This thesis focuses on the creation of merging functionality for report layouts in Report Definition Language (RDL) through the design of an intuitive interface and effective merge algorithm. Interviews were conducted to gather requirements from the application users. A prototype was implemented for a two file merge with user interaction. The approach taken was to analyze the layout and find the corresponding matches. The interface was designed to maximize usability and included features using colors and viewing windows for comparison.