Live Compare
Essentials for Office 365 provides a unique method for visually comparing and synchronizing the objects and content within any two site collections, sites or lists. The Live Compare interface displays up to the moment differences between these sites and allows the user to drill down and copy the differences to either environment.
The Live Compare! interface consists of three primary sections: 1. A connection area, 2. Viewer, 3. Compare Options
The Connection Area: The connection area is separated into a "Site URL" and a "List/Library" field for each of the lists to be compared.
The Viewer Area: The viewer area is separated into two parts each of which displays the content from the site, list, or library specified above in the connection area.
Compare Options: At the bottom of the Live Compare window, there are three buttons; "Full Compare" "Load Compare Report" and "Quick Compare"
During a compare, a user can drill down into any object type to compare or re-compare that object against its counterpart in the other site. The two "Copy from-" buttons at the top of the window initiate standard copying operations. See the Site Migration Wizard section for additional detail.
Full Compare
This option will generate a report of all the differences between the selected sites and subsites (if selected). Unlike the "Quick Compare" interactive approach, this report will automatically crawl and collect all the differences, which will then be saved to a CSV file for viewing.
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NOTE: Depending on the amount of content and selected options, this may require an extended amount of time. For this reason, the report is run in the background. |
The completed report, (stored as a csv file), may be loaded into this interface using the "Load Compare Report" button (see the Load Compare Report section for more details on loading a compare report).
To perform a Full Compare with Live Compare, do the following:
1.In the Migrator tab, select Live Compare from the Sites section.
2.Once the Live Compare window opens, select your two Site URL's for comparison by clicking the downward arrow
3.Select the site or sub-site that you want to compare and press the Finish button.
4.Select Full Compare from the bottom of the Live Compare screen.
5.Select the properties you would like to apply to your Full Compare and click Run.
Use Enhanced Content Compare: This option will use the last modified date to identify differences in content that exists in both sites (lists and libraries). Normally the comparison is limited to identifying differences in content that exists in one site but not the other.
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NOTE: Depending on the amount of content this comparison may require extended periods of time. |
Include Item Level Permissions: The differences in Item Level Permissions between the selected sites or lists will be analyzed as part of the compare.
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NOTE: Permission comparison may require extended periods of time depending on the amount of content and permissions |
Include Group Membership: The differences in the Group Memberships between the selected sites or lists will be analyzed as part of the compare.
User Mapping: This option should be used in the event that a mapping file was used during the initial copy from source to target. This is especially useful if you have mapped accounts from source to target.
Include Subsites: Any subsites for the selected sites will be analyzed as part of the compare.
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NOTE: Depending on the amount of subsites this comparison may require extended periods of time. |
6.When prompted save the Full Compare file to a location on your computer.
Quick Compare
This option will generate a listing of SharePoint objects within the Live Compare window. Users can navigate and drill down into each object to see and copy the differences from one site to another. This option is limited to the currently selected sites. See Full Compare for additional capabilities.
To perform a Quick Compare with Live Compare, do the following:
1.In the Migrator tab, select Live Compare from the Sites section.
2.Once the Live Compare window opens, select your two Site URL's for comparison by clicking the downward arrow
3.Select the site or sub-site that you want to compare and press the Finish button.
4.Select Quick Compare from the bottom of the Live Compare screen.
5.Select the properties you would like to apply to your Full Compare and click Run.
Use Enhanced Content Compare: This option will use the last modified date to identify differences in content that exists in both sites (lists and libraries). Normally the comparison is limited to identifying differences in content that exists in one site but not the other.
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NOTE: Depending on the amount of content this comparison may require extended periods of time. |
Include Item Level Permissions: The differences in Item Level Permissions between the selected sites or lists will be analyzed as part of the compare.
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NOTE: Permission comparison may require extended periods of time depending on the amount of content and permissions |
Include Group Membership: The differences in the Group Memberships between the selected sites or lists will be analyzed as part of the compare.
User Mapping: This option should be used in the event that a mapping file was used during the initial copy from source to target. This is especially useful if you have mapped accounts from source to target.
6.The Live Compare results will be loaded in the Live Compare window, where you can now copy items from left to right and vice versa.
Load Compare Report
The Load Compare Report option allows users to select a completed Full Compare report and display its results in the Live Compare viewer where a user can drill down into any object type to compare or re-compare that object against its counterpart on the other side. The "Copy from..." buttons can be used to initiate a copy operation from one side to the other.
To load a compare report do the following:
1.In the Migrator tab, select Live Compare from the Sites section.
2.At the bottom of the Live Compare window select Load Compare Report. This will open your computer's explorer.
3.Locate the Live Compare .csv file you wish to load. Click Open.
4.This will open the Select Site screen. Select one of the sites from the original full compare .csv file and click Connect.
5.Select the site or sub-site that you want to compare and press the Finish button.
6.Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the second site from your full compare .csv file for comparison. Once you have completed these steps the full compare .csv file will be loaded into the Live Compare window.
7.You can now copy items from left to right and vice versa.