Short answer
Use Blobster’s Compare pane when you want to know which values changed between two versions of a payload or config you should not upload. Use a text diff when the formatting, comments or key order are the change you care about.
Key points
- Each difference is listed as changed, added, removed or type, with a JSONPath-style path and the values before and after.
- Key order and whitespace are not differences.
- Arrays of objects are matched by the first field that is present and unique in both files, from
id,_id,uuid,key,codeandname. Other arrays are compared by position. - The second file is read from disk and parsed in the browser, up to the raw-first size limit (25 MB by default).
Steps
- Open the first file in Blobster from disk, a paste or a URL.
- Open Compare in the side pane, or run Compare with file from the command palette.
- Choose the second file. Blobster parses it by its file name, so a YAML file can be compared with a JSON file.
- Read the summary, such as
3 differences · 2 changed · 1 added, then the list below it. - Click a changed or removed value to jump to it in the first document.
What the result looks like
In this example the second file moves version to the end, lists the users in a different order with their keys reordered, changes one email address and adds a user. Blobster reports three differences. The reordering does not count, because the users are matched by id.
changed $.version 1 → 2
changed $.users[id=2].email "bo@example.test" → "bo@example.org"
added $.users[id=3] {"id":3,"email":"cy@example.test","role":"viewer"}Where a structural diff is the wrong tool
Blobster compares parsed values, so it does not report changes to formatting, comments or key order. When those are the change, use a line diff.
Arrays without a shared id field are compared by position. Inserting one item near the start of such an array makes every later item look changed.
The list shows the first 5,000 differences. Blobster does not produce a patch or merge the two files.
For diffs in a script or a CI job, sort the keys first and compare text, for example with diff <(jq -S . before.json) <(jq -S . after.json). jq’s -S option outputs object keys in sorted order.
Why not a diff website
Pasting two versions of a production response, a customer config or an export into a diff site means trusting that site with both. Blobster reads the second file from disk into the extension and keeps both there. It compares your current draft too, so local edits to the first document are included.