They say it’s darkest just before the dawn. And whether that’s when you’re most productive, or in the middle of a warm, sunny day, Review Board 7 will help you see the code, documents, images, and reviews in an all-new light.
Review Board 7 introduces Dark Mode, all-new support for reviewing images directly in the Diff Viewer, Microsoft Teams integration, mobile-friendly diff review, and lots more.
And we’re not just releasing Review Board 7 today. We’re also releasing RBTools 5 and Review Bot 4, which help unleash the full power of Review Board 7’s new features.
Dark Mode
There's nothing worse than staying up late to review code and feeling blinded by your screen. With Dark Mode in Review Board 7, you can reduce eye strain and work comfortably no matter the time of day. This sleek new look not only helps in low-light environments but also adds a modern, stylish touch to your code reviews.
You can activate Dark Mode in My Account -> Appearance. You can also have Review Board automatically match your system theme, keeping it in sync with all your other applications.
Dark Mode is currently in beta as we continue to fine-tune its look and expand its availability throughout the product. It's not available yet in the Administration UI, Reports, or Document Review, but those updates are coming soon.
Image Review in the Diff Viewer
Projects aren’t made entirely of code and text files. Images can be a crucial part of your commits, too, often containing essential design updates, new artwork, or visual elements that define your feature. While this used to require uploading these images separately as file attachments, now they can be seen directly in the Diff Viewer with the rest of your change.
To upload images as part of your change, you’ll need to use the new RBTools 5 release and a Git, Mercurial, Perforce, or Subversion repository. This will ensure new images and changes to existing images are included with your code.
Once uploaded, images can be viewed and diffed using several modes:
- Two-Up: Shows the old and the new images side-by-side.
- Color Difference: Changes in colors are shown like an X-Ray, helping you spot even the smallest changes to an image.
- Split Mode: Overlays both images, using a slider to show or hide parts of each image.
- Onion Skin: Like Split Mode, but adjusting the transparency of the new image on top of the old.
Microsoft Teams Integration
Staying on top of code reviews is now easier with our new Microsoft Teams integration. Slack and Discord users have enjoyed live notifications of review request activity for years, and now, Teams users can too.
New and updated review requests, as well as any reviews or replies, are sent directly to your Teams channels. This keeps your team informed and responsive, no matter where they are.
An unlimited number of rules can be configured, helping you keep individual channels informed based on repositories, branches, or any other criteria. You can even keep sensitive review requests out of public channels automatically.
Mobile Diff Review
Reviewing code on the go is now easier with our improved Mobile Diff Review. On small screens, the diff viewer automatically switches to a single column, presenting changes in a mobile-friendly way without the need for side-by-side comparisons. This ensures a smooth and efficient review process, even when you're away from your desk.
Plus…
- A more polished and accessible UI throughout the product.
- Improved Jenkins CI compatibility.
- Configurable timeouts for CI builds.
- Updated default settings for the Dashboards for new users.
- Better Markdown review compatibility.
- Backed by Django 4.2 LTS for long-term security and support for your server.
- Increased stability, faster performance, and many, many bug fixes.
And that’s just Review Board! We have improvements in RBTools 5 and Review Bot 4 that we haven’t even talked about yet.
To learn more, see the release notes for:
Ready to upgrade?
For most users of Review Board 5 or 6, Review Board 7 will be a drop-in replacement with minimal downtime.
Still, make sure you have a backup of your database and site directory, and please perform a test upgrade on a test server. Then follow the upgrade instructions.
If you’re using Docker, follow our Docker instructions to deploy new containers. Review Board 7’s official Docker images are based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS and Python 3.11.
Talk to us about Review Board Support to keep your server running smoothly and your developers happy.