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[[File:Database-differences-report-example-50.png|thumb|right|450px|Database Differences Report example output]]
The '''{{man label|Database Differences Report''' }} allows a mostly complete comparison between the currently opened database (Family Tree) and a Gramps XML file.
=== Usage ===
[[File:Database-differences-report-ReportOptions-tab-defaults-51.png|thumb|right|450px|Database Differences Report - Report Options tab example defaults]]
Open the family tree you want to compare then
====Limitations====
The Database Differences Report is focused on the principle principal elements of the Database.
There are a number of other types of 'metadata' that are not examined during the Database Differences Report.
Some of these 'metadata' are not 'regular' in the way they are stored, comparing them would be a fair amount of additional code work.
Also note that some of the 'metadata' would be difficult to compare because they are not stored in the backup XML files, but rather in the Gramps initialization files. According to the author, not all changes are pertinent. For example an object that just has an updated timestamp is ignored, as are dates that may have irrelevant differences. Note that it will report changed order of list items as two different changes. It doesn't say "tag list items 1 and 2 were switched" (which would be nice) but rather "tag list, #1 [ToDo]", "tag list, #2 [Imported]" for item1 and "tag list, #1 [Imported]", "tag list, #2 [To Do]" for item2.
====Note regarding older backup files====
In the past Gramps allowed data to be input in ways that are no longer allowed. When you import an older backup file, many of these issues are silently corrected for you. For example, Gramps used to allow leading and trailing spaces in name fields. Gramps now removes the leading and trailing white space when the data is entered.
The Database Differences Report performs it's work by creating a temporary Database and importing the backup file that you specified. A side effect of this is that if your Gramps DB Database has been around for a long time, it may still contain things that are not currently allowed. But the comparison will be done against the backup file that has all of those issues fixed. Each correction has the potential of showing up as a difference, but on examination they look the same. It is quite hard to see those leading/training trailing spaces.
There are 2 solutions:
==See also==
==Issues==
* help button doses does not come here.* See issues and features tagged: [https://gramps-project.org/bugs/tag_view_page.php?tag_id=369 DatabaseDifferencesReport] on the bugtracker.
