README

PHP library to generate HTML diff output with multiple diff strategies. Zero external dependencies.

This is a PHP variant of vue-diff-text, a Vue 3 plugin for displaying text and HTML differences. Same diff strategies, same HTML output, same CSS classes — just in PHP.

Author: Steve McNiven-Scott

Installation

composer require sitefinitysteve/php-diff-text

That's it — Composer's autoloader handles the rest. No service providers, no config files.

Usage

Each diff class takes old and new text and returns HTML with .diff-added and .diff-removed spans.

Quick start (any PHP project)

use PhpDiffText\DiffText;

// One-liner — pick your strategy
echo DiffText::words('The quick brown fox', 'The slow brown fox');
echo DiffText::chars('cat', 'car');
echo DiffText::lines($oldFile, $newFile);

Or use the individual classes directly:

use PhpDiffText\DiffWords;

echo DiffWords::render('The quick brown fox', 'The slow brown fox');

// Get raw Change[] array for custom rendering
$changes = DiffWords::diff('old text', 'new text');

Laravel Blade example

In your controller:

use PhpDiffText\DiffText;

public function show()
{
    return view('document.diff', [
        'diffHtml' => DiffText::words($oldVersion, $newVersion),
    ]);
}

In your Blade template:

{{-- Include the diff styles (in your layout or the specific view) --}}
<link rel="stylesheet" href="{{ asset('vendor/php-diff-text/style.css') }}">

{{-- Render the diff output (already safe HTML) --}}
{!! $diffHtml !!}

Tip: Copy vendor/sitefinitysteve/php-diff-text/css/style.css into public/vendor/php-diff-text/style.css, or add it to your Vite/Mix pipeline.

Output:

<div class="text-diff text-diff-words">
  <span>The</span>
  <span class="diff-removed">quick</span>
  <span class="diff-added">slow</span>
  <span>brown</span>
  <span>fox</span>
</div>

Available Diff Classes

Class	Description
`DiffChars`	Character-level diff
`DiffWords`	Word-level diff (ignores whitespace)
`DiffWordsWithSpace`	Word-level diff (whitespace-aware)
`DiffLines`	Line-level diff
`DiffSentences`	Sentence-level diff
`DiffHtml`	HTML-aware diff with optional similarity threshold

All methods are static — no instantiation needed.

DiffText Facade

The DiffText class is the recommended entry point:

use PhpDiffText\DiffText;

DiffText::chars($old, $new);
DiffText::words($old, $new);
DiffText::wordsWithSpace($old, $new);
DiffText::lines($old, $new);
DiffText::sentences($old, $new);
DiffText::html($old, $new, similarityThreshold: 0.3);

Options

All text diff classes accept an options array:

DiffWords::render('Hello World', 'hello world', ['ignoreCase' => true]);

HTML Diff with Similarity Threshold

DiffHtml supports a similarity threshold (0-1). When the texts are less similar than the threshold, it renders a "full replacement" instead of a granular diff:

use PhpDiffText\DiffText;

// Word-level diff (default)
echo DiffText::html('<p>Hello world</p>', '<p>Hello Vue world</p>');

// Full replacement when texts are very different
echo DiffText::html(
    'Original long paragraph about insurance policies...',
    'Item 1: House. Item 2: Car.',
    similarityThreshold: 0.3
);

Similarity Utility

Compute text similarity directly:

use PhpDiffText\Similarity;

$score = Similarity::compute('Hello world', 'Hello worlds');
// Returns float 0-1 (Dice coefficient)

Styling

Include the bundled CSS for default diff styling:

<link rel="stylesheet" href="vendor/sitefinitysteve/php-diff-text/css/style.css">

Or copy it into your asset pipeline. Customize with CSS variables:

:root {
  --text-diff-added-bg: #ddfbe6;
  --text-diff-added-color: #008000;
  --text-diff-removed-bg: #fce9e9;
  --text-diff-removed-color: #c70000;
  --text-diff-removed-decoration: line-through;
}

Testing

composer install
composer test

Publishing to Packagist

First-time setup

Create a GitHub repository:

cd php-diff-text
git init
git add .
git commit -m "Initial release"
gh repo create sitefinitysteve/php-diff-text --public --source=. --push

Register on Packagist:
- Log in with your GitHub account
- Click "Submit" and enter the GitHub repo URL
- Packagist will auto-detect the composer.json
Set up auto-updating (recommended):
- On Packagist, go to your package settings and grab the API token
- On GitHub, go to repo Settings > Webhooks > Add webhook
- Payload URL: https://packagist.org/api/github?username=sitefinitysteve
- Content type: application/json
- Secret: your Packagist API token
- Events: "Just the push event"

Releasing a new version

Tag a release and push:

git tag v1.0.0
git push origin v1.0.0

Or use GitHub Releases:

gh release create v1.0.0 --title "v1.0.0" --notes "Initial release"

Packagist picks up the new tag automatically via the webhook.

GitHub Actions (optional auto-test on release)

Create .github/workflows/tests.yml:

name: Tests
on: [push, pull_request]
jobs:
  test:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    strategy:
      matrix:
        php: ['8.1', '8.2', '8.3', '8.4']
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      - uses: shivammathur/setup-php@v2
        with:
          php-version: ${{ matrix.php }}
      - run: composer install --no-interaction
      - run: composer test

License

MIT

Made with ❤️ by sitefinitysteve

sitefinitysteve / php-diff-text

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