When an amended version of a rule is published in the XML format, is there a way to determine what are the changes compared to a previous version?
Answer
There are several ways to make a comparison. One is to simply - programmatically - compare the two XML files and extract the changes. In addition to that or as an alternative to this method, you can use the attribute topic-metadata/@RegulatorySource. When a topic which appears in one version of a publication is modified in a subsequent version, the value of its attribute topic-metadata/@RegulatorySource changes.
For example: The topic with the identifier ERulesId="ERULES-1963177438-2548" was present in one version of a rule with the value of the attribute
topic-metadata/@RegulatorySource ="ED Decision 2014/012/R"
If the topic’s content is modified in the next version of the rule, then the attribute topic-metadata/@RegulatorySource will receive a new value corresponding to the decision that approved the change, for example topic-metadata/@RegulatorySource ="ED Decision 2018/009/R"