Explorer
The Explorer lets you browse the structure of a metadata profile and compare two profiles side by side. Open it from Explorer in the header.
Browsing a profile
- Select a profile under Base Profile (Reference).
- Click Explore.
The profile's entities and fields are drawn as an entity–relationship diagram. Use the canvas controls to zoom, pan, Fit the diagram to the view, and switch between automatic (physics) and hierarchical Layout. Zoom in on an entity to read its fields.
Comparing two profiles
- Select a Base Profile (Reference).
- Select a second profile under Compare Against.
- Click Compare.
The diagram overlays both profiles and highlights the differences:
| Legend | Colour | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Common | green | Present and unchanged in both profiles |
| Added | blue | Present only in the compared profile |
| Removed | red | Present only in the base profile |
| Modified | amber | Present in both but with field-level differences |
| Conflict | purple | Present in both with incompatible field attributes |
Green means the two profiles agree. The canvas, the legend and the entity panel use the same colours, and every state also carries a glyph (= + - ~ !) so the distinction does not depend on colour vision.
Entity details
Click an entity to open the Entity Details panel. It shows the entity's status, which profiles it is Present In, and the field-level differences (added, removed, or modified fields).
Filtering
In compare mode, the Show/Hide controls let you toggle which entities are shown — common, base-only, or compare-only — so you can focus on the differences. Show All restores everything.