We've been working toward Review Board 4.0 for some time now, and we're happy to announce that it's finally here!
This is a big release with a lot of user-facing, behind-the-scenes, and administrative changes. Let's dig into the highlights.
Multi-Commit Review Requests
When working with Git or Mercurial, review requests now track each and every commit that went into the change.
This provides reviewers with the freedom to review code in the way that makes the most sense to them. They can review each commit individually or select a range of commits to see and review at once.
Review requests can be landed to a repository or applied locally in either a squashed (single commit) form, or preserving each individual commit.
Support for Python 3
Review Board 4.0 is the first version to support Python 3. As of now, Python 3.6 through 3.9 can be used.
Python 2.7 is still supported. However, we will be dropping support in Review Board 5.0, so we recommend that people prepare an upgrade to Python 3 soon.
If you're an extension author, please be aware that you may need to update your extensions for both Python 3 and Django 1.11 compatibility. See the release notes for more information.
Jenkins Integration
The Jenkins integration can run automated tests and builds any time a new review request is posted or updated.
To get set up, follow the documentation and make sure you set up the Review Board plugin for Jenkins.
Discord Integration
The new Discord integration will post activity and discussions on review requests to your Discord channel. Teams using Discord can now stay informed on what's out for review, and what feedback's coming in.
Dashboard Overview Tab
The new "Overview" tab on the dashboard will show you all the review requests you have out for review, along with all the review requests that are in your review queue.
Publish Review And Archive
There's a new "Publish review and archive the review request" option available when reviewing a change. Click this to publish your review and then hide it from your dashboard until you get a reply.
Read-only Mode
Preparing for some downtime? Administrators can now place their Review Board server in read-only mode. This will prevent people from uploading new review requests, reviewing code, or changing their profiles, while you take care of your maintenance tasks.
New Administration UI
We've completely rewritten the administration UI to give you a better experience. It's mobile-friendly, with simpler navigation, a cleaner administrative dashboard, and screen reader support.
Smoother Installation and Management
It's now easier than ever to install optional dependencies for Review Board. We've added several special packages that will help install the right versions of the right dependencies:
ReviewBoard[ldap]ReviewBoard[mercurial]ReviewBoard[mysql]ReviewBoard[swift]ReviewBoard[p4]ReviewBoard[postgres]ReviewBoard[subvertpy]ReviewBoard[s3]
Site installation and management has also been revamped, making it easier and faster to create new Review Board sites and to run common management tasks (like search index updates).
Plus...
- Live video thumbnails for video file attachments
- Improved support for screen readers (more improvements to come)
- New extension and API capabilities
- New automation options for site creation and management
Ready to upgrade?
First, make sure you have a backup of your database and site directory, and have tested an upgrade on a test server.
Please be aware that an upgrade can take time. You should also make sure your extensions have been updated to work with Review Board 4.0.
Then follow the upgrade instructions.
To learn more about Review Board 4.0, please read the release notes.
