Creating Review Requests¶
A review request consists of, at a minimum, a summary, a description, and some reviewers. A review request usually has a diff, but it can be useful to have review requests that only have file attachments.
There are two main ways of submitting a new review request: through the web UI and through post-review. We recommend the latter when posting diffs for review, as it does a lot of work for you, and is actually required for some version control systems, such as Perforce.
Web UI¶
To post a review request through the web UI, click New Review Request in the upper-left of a page. This will take you to a form where you can create your review request. What information you provide depends on whether you’re posting a diff for review, or intending to post file attachments for review.
Once you’ve filled out all fields, click Submit to post the review request.
Review Requests for Diffs¶
If you’re uploading a diff, you will need to select a repository and browse to the diff you wish to upload.
The diff you provide needs to be in unified diff format, and must have revision information embedded in the file. CVS, Subversion, Git, Mercurial and Bazaar provide this information. If you use Perforce, though, you’ll need to use post-review instead of the web UI. Note that this means you can’t just use a standard diff generated by the diff tool. You’ll need to consult your version control system’s documentation for information on generating diffs.
Once you’ve generated the diff, specify it in the form. You’ll also need to specify the repository containing the code that the diff was generated against. On many Review Board installations, you’ll only have one choice, but some may have multiple ones to choose from.
After selecting the repository, additional fields dependent on that repository may become available. Here are some fields you may encounter.
Perforce repositories:
Change Number:
The changeset number representing the change the diff is generated from.
Subversion repositories:
Base Directory:
The relative path of the directory you were in when you generated the diff, based on the repository. For example, if you locally have a checkout of trunk/reviewboard named reviewboard, and that was the directory you were in when you made the diff, then the base diff path would be /trunk/reviewboard.
This may also depend on how Review Board was configured. Consult your administrator if you have problems.
Review Requests for File Attachments Only¶
If you’re intending to post a review request only for reviewing file attachments, you will want to change the Repository to (None - File Attachments only). You will not be able to add any diffs to this review request, but after creating it, you will be able to add attachments.
No other fields will need to be provided when using this option.
Finishing the Review Request¶
Once you’ve posted your initial diff through the web UI or post-review, you’ll have a draft of your review request posted. Nobody but you will be able to see the review request until you publish it.
Before you publish the review request, you’ll need to fill out the summary, description and reviewers. Some of these fields may be filled in depending on your repository type, the tool you used to post the review request, and any defaults your administrator has set up for the reviewers (see Default Reviewers if you’re the administrator).
File attachments can be added with the Update ‣ Add File menu item or by dragging and dropping files onto the page in the browser.
You can preview your diff by clicking View Diff in the review request action bar (in the top-right of the review request). Uploading a new diff (either using the Update ‣ Update Diff menu item or with post-review) before publishing will replace the diff.
When you’re finished, click Publish Review Request in the green draft banner above the review request. You can also choose to discard the review request by clicking Discard.
Depending on your particular setup, publishing a review request may send an e-mail out to the reviewers, letting them know your change is ready to review.