How to Diff PDF/XFA forms in GitLab

Question

To all whom are concerned:

My boss and I are on GitLab and we have problems trying to differentiate between dynamic PDF files.

Normally, for code files like C# class .cs files, it's easy to double-click and have GitLab highlight the changes made between two different versions.

However, we also create dynamic XFA/PDF files in Adobe LiveCycle and it's difficult to tell what has been changed at times, especially if the commit messages are not too specific or too vague. We know people suggested taking screenshots of the PDF between each version, but you can't diff text changes or format changes on image files.

We tried the program DiffPDF found here:

http://www.qtrac.eu/diffpdf.html

But we found out that it does not work with XFA/dynamic forms.

Does anyone have any suggestions on any possible programs that can diff the actual content on PDFs in GitLab?

Thank you for your time and future advice.

Answer 1

I will agree that it is hard to see what have been changed on a PDF, but if you instead look at the XDP-file you will be able to see what code have been changed.

If that is possible for you.