diff.io recently added a new parameter for incoming requests. By sending an additional property of “assets” with a value of true, diff.io will then include all assets that are generated, in addition to the default composite and montage images. This includes thumbnails, as well as transparent overlays.
The primary use case of this parameter is to get the persistent location of screenshots used in the job, to then use those images in future jobs.
Sound confusing? Consider the use cases below:
Use case #1: you want to have daily differences generated, but you also want to generate a month-to-month comparison, as it represents the changes that occurred during a reporting period.
Use case #2: you want to capture the state of a page prior to a cms, plugin, or module upgrade. Then later, once upgrades have been completed, you can submit a new job for a before-and-after impact assessment. Select representative pages or compare the whole site.
Use case #3: using a service like ngrok.com, developers can confirm the visual impact of local changes against production or prior development version. Understand the impact before even pushing to a remote repository, and certainly prior to merging into a staging/review environment.
In summary, any time you are not following the live page-to-page pattern or live page-to-self pattern, this new parameter is probably useful for you. Creating custom workflows, dashboards, or if you integrate into other applications, make sure you pass this parameter in your call.
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{"url1": "http://blog.diff.io", "assets": true, ... } |
Update: With the addition of this feature, requests will always create a separate assets.json file in addition to the results.json. This happens even if you did not include the the assets flag.
Looking to build a process or workflow around diff.io, get in touch with matt@diff.io.
