What's new in CodeCollaborator?

We've added several new major features and usability enhancements, additional integration support, and minor bug-fixes.

Check out what's new in v5.0, v4.0, v2.1, and v2.0 below!

What's New in v5.0

Review More Than Just Text Files

Document files (.pdf)

• View, comment, and add defects on multi-page documents.
• Add comments in two-dimensional space, right on the document.

Image files (.png, .jpg, and .gif)

• Easily flip back and forth between two versions to see what changed.
• Slider allows you to control partial transparency between the two versions so you can easily see differences.

URLs

• Review HTML, Wiki pages, or documents hosted in an Intranet or web-based document management system.

User Groups

Define groups of users. Groups could be based on organizational hierarchy, project assignments, or whatever you choose. Group definitions can be imported from an external system (e.g. LDAP, Active Directory, version control, etc.). Each review may be associated with a group, which is used to narrow the list of candidate participants for the group. Reports can be filtered and sorted by group.

"Invite Me Back" Control

Gives you control over exactly which events during a review cause you to receive a notification or be invited back to a review.

You can "Wait" on answers to your questions about a review or click "Finished" to indicate you're done with the review. Either way you have the option of specifying the type of event that will cause you to receive a notification.

Diff Viewer Enhancements

The file difference viewer is where you spend most of your time, so we invested much of our time in improving it!

• Examine differences between any two versions, not just any version and the latest version.
• Move between files in the review without having to go back to the Review Summary screen.
• Keyboard shortcut changes - F7/F8 for moving to prev/next diff/comment and PgUp/PgDn for scrolling the file content.
• The file difference viewer window now opens at the same size/position it had when it was last closed.

Post-commit Review from the Browser UI

Add a changelist to a review directly from the browser UI - no client-side application needed!

...And 28 More Features!

Check out the Top 12 Reasons to Upgrade or view the complete list of all changes in v5.0 here.

Revamped Diff Viewer

The file difference viewer is where you spend most of your time, so we spent lots of our time improving it!

• Faster load times, especially for large files
• New "over-under" view to complement the existing "side-by-side" view
• Hide chat area with one click; click to expand temporarily
• Next/Prev buttons can now operate on defects, comments, changes, etc.
• Window and pane-separator positions are preserved

Customizable Review Reports

Choose from 40 fields and filters. Slice and dice everything from simple lists of reviews to metrics like LOC-changed and time-spent-in-review.

View on-line or print, export to CSV/Excel, or view the SQL query used to generate the data so you can easily import that query into another tool, without having learning how our database schema works.

Built-in reports include: Current reviews, Stalled reviews, Reviews past deadline, and reviews that were completed too quickly to be effective.

Subscriptions

Users can have themselves added automatically to new reviews. Be a reviewer or observer whenever some other user creates a review, or subscribe to certain files. Uses include:

• Code Ownership: Be the reviewer whenever someone modifies your code
• Mentoring: Assign a mentor to new hires who will always review their code
• Notification: Be an observer for any review in your group

Show File Differences in Local Viewer

Do you prefer Araxis™ or DiffMerge™ to our web-based diff viewer? Or maybe Guiffy, UltraCompare™, or something else? Now you can click a link and see all file differences in your local diff viewer.
SourceGear's DiffMerge tool is now included in our installer and works automatically with this feature. DiffMerge is especially adept at dealing with large files and exotic character encodings.

Ding, Dong, the Wizard is Dead!

Sick of having to click 12 times to get through the "Create New Review" wizard? Now "New Review" is just one screen. You can do everything on a single page and start the review with a single click.

No features were lost in the process, in fact we added some new ones. Now you can copy custom field data from the previous review with a single click.

Those of you with hundreds of users will be happy to hear we've updated the drop-down widget to let you search for a user by typing part of the name.

Taskbar Notifier (Cross-Platform!)

Our new taskbar notifier application is a little icon in your operating system's menu. Get passive pop-up messages when a review of yours changes state. Click to see action items.

Review Deadlines

Now you can set a deadline for those long-running reviews.

Notifications are sent automatically when a review is nearing the deadline and someone hasn't started yet. Action Items now clearly shows which reviews are closer to deadline so you can do those first.

Recently Completed Reviews

See the list of reviews you recently finished, right on your home page. Now it's easy to copy the title of the review into the comment field before you check in those changes.

Notification of Stalled Reviews

When a reviewer hasn't started a review after a set amount of time, Code Collaborator will now send pro-active notifications urging them to get it finished.

RSS Feeds

Prefer getting your notifications via RSS instead of email? Or maybe your favorite desktop widget can consume RSS. Now you can get all your notifications by RSS as well as, or instead of, email.

...And More!

We added lots more creature-features and minor bug fixes on top of these features. See the version history for all the details.

What's new in v2.1

Externalized Defects

Sometimes you find a defect that you don't want to fix during review. You'd like to defer it, but how can you track that?

The new externalized defects feature lets you do this quickly while still leaving behind the proper audit trail. This feature gives you a link that lets you move the defect to an external issue tracker. Now you can schedule the defect normally while CodeCollaborator tracks that the defect has been moved. Now you can complete the review without forgetting to fix the problem.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Finally! One of our most-requested features, you can now navigate the side-by-side view and chat area using just the keyboard. Quickly move between changed lines or move up and down one line at a time. Just start typing normally as soon as you want to leave a chat message.

Oracle Support

CodeCollaborator now supports Oracle 10g database back-ends. A migration path exists for customers wanting to switch from an existing MySQL or SQL Server installation.

SSL Support

SSL is now supported for the web GUI, the cross-platform command-line client, the Windows GUI Client, and the Eclipse client. This means completely secure communications no matter where your users are.

Eclipse support for ClearCase and Subversion

The Eclipse plug-in added ClearCase and Subversion support on top of the existing Perforce and CVS support.

For Subversion you can review code before check-in, or right-click on an atomic check-in from the Subclipse plug-in to add it to a review.

CMVC Integration

For all of you IBM'ers out there, CodeCollaborator now provides native support for CMVC. Upload arbitrary changes or upload all changes that are part of a track with one easy command-line command. Restrict to a particular Defect and Release.

40 Creature-Features

We added 40 creature-features and minor bug fixes on top of these big features. See the version history for all the details.

What's new in v2.0

Eclipse Plug-In

Users of most Eclipse-based applications can now interact with Code Collaborator without leaving the IDE. View live Action Items, upload local file with version control integration, and more.

Supports Eclipse v3.0.5, v3.1.x, and v3.2.x. Supports various Eclipse-based applications including WebSphere and of course the Eclipse IDE itself.

Use our Eclipse update site to start using the Eclipse plug-in today.

Review Templates

Change the rules for the review depending on pre-defined review "types." A "Self Check" review might only require that the author look over his own files. A "Formal" review might require one moderator, one author, one or more reviewers, and one recorder.

All role information and custom review and defect fields can change between each template.

Real-Time Chat

Now the web-based "chat" interface really is just like instant messenger. If you have a side-by-side view open and another user makes a comment, your screen will automatically update in a few seconds.

Super Search

Search over review comments, custom fields, defects, file paths, and users. Now you can find all reviews that contained a certain file or all defects relating to a certain checklist item.

Server-Side Triggers

The CodeCollaborator server will execute your custom script upon certain events such as review-creation and files uploaded. The script can "talk back" to the server using an XML command language.

Use triggers to enforce custom workflow rules such as "All changes to this file must be reviewed by this person" or "All changes by this person must be reviewed by his team lead." Also use triggers to integrate CodeCollaborator defects into external issue tracking systems.

Test and Diff Files Locally

Download a ZIP file containing the latest contents of all files under review. Expand them into your development environment for testing, or use your favorite tool to examine the differences.

Easily change review participants

Update the list of participants any time during the review instead of having to go back to the "Planning Phase." New notifications are sent automatically.

Support for Microsoft SQL Server

CodeCollaborator now supports Microsoft SQL Server back-ends instead of just MySQL. Versions 2000 and 2005. A migration path exists for customers wanting to switch from an existing MySQL installation.

DiffMerge™ is a trademark of SourceGear LLC. Araxis™ is a trademark of Araxis Ltd. UltraCompare™ is a trademark of IDM Computer Solutions, Inc. Perforce® is a registered trademark of Perforce, Inc.