2. Parameters and Options

Parameters & Options

As well as the Diff class as the Renderer classes have many parameters and options.

The parameters and options for the Diff class will mainly affect the comparing process of the input texts.
The parameters and options for the Renderer Classes will mainly affect the output of the renderer itself.

Diff Class

Parameters

When instantiating the Diff class, the constructor accepts the following arguments:

Parameter	Type	Mandatory	Description
$version1	string \| array	*	The 1st version of the text to compare. When the value is of type array, it's expected to have one line of text per element. E.g. `$value = ['First Line', 'Second Line', ...]`.
$version2	string \| array	*	The 2nd version of the text to compare. When the value is of type array, it's expected to have one line of text per element. E.g. `$value = ['First Line', 'Second Line', ...]`.
$options	array		Array of options with option/value pairs as described below.

Options

Options can be set by passing them to the constructor or by calling method Diff::setOptions().

Name	Type	Default	Description
context	int	3	Amount of 'context' lines around a difference. E.g. If line 5 differs, show line 2 to 8 (2 > 5 < 8).
trimEqual	bool	true	If true, the first and the last equal parts of the compared texts are excluded from the result.
ignoreWhitespace	bool	false	If true, tabs and spaces are ignored while comparing. The spacing of version 1 is leading.
ignoreCase	bool	false	If true, character casing is ignored while comparing. The casing of version 1 is leading.

Main Renderer

Parameters

When instantiating the Main Renderer class, the constructor accepts the following arguments:

Parameter	Type	Mandatory	Description
$options	array		Array of options with option/value pairs as described below.

Options

Options can be set by passing them to the constructor or by calling method MainRenderer::setOptions().

Note: Besides the predefined options, it's possible to pass 'custom' options. They will not be used, but once such options are set, it can't be removed anymore by using the above method.

Name	Type	Default	Description
inlineMarking	int	2	The level of how differences are marked. CHANGE_LEVEL_CHAR: Inline-Mark each different character. CHANGE_LEVEL_WORD: Inline-Mark each different word. CHANGE_LEVEL_LINE: Inline-Mark from first to last line diff. Other values result in CHANGE_LEVEL_NONE: Don't Inline-Mark.
tabSize	int \| false	4	The amount of spaces to replace a tab character with. If set to `false` the tabs won't be replaced.
format	string	'plain'	The format of the input texts. If set to `'plain'`, the content will be treated as plain text. If set to `'html'`, the content will be treated as HTML and the renderer will convert special characters to html enitites.
cliColor	bool	false	Colorized output. Meant for renderers which output to a cli.
deleteMarkers	array	['', '']	Markers for removed text. Text which exists in version 1, but not in version 2 will be surrounded by these markers.
insertMarkers	array	['', '']	Markers for inserted text. Text which doesn't exists in version 1, but is present in version 2 will be surrounded by these markers.
equalityMarkers	array	['', '']	Markers for unchanged and changed lines. Used for in front marking of a line to indicate a line is equal between the two versions or not.
insertColors	array	['', '']	Fore- and background color for inserted text. Only when cliColor = true.
deleteColors	array	['', '']	Fore- and background color for removed text. Only when cliColor = true.

Sub Renderers

Most of the included renderers extends the Main Renderer class. Therefore, these classes have at least the same options as the Main renderer.

The Sub Renderer classes may or may not override the default values. Options which aren't described for a Sub Renderer, but are present in the Main renderer, will have the default value as described at the Main Renderer paragraph.