Know what parts I really need? What are all these parts?

Every organization needs a Collaborator Server installed and set up. (Read the Getting Started for Server Administrators for instructions.) The server process acts as the hub, manager, and controller of information. (Download the Server Installer for this component.)

To connect to the server, you use the Web Browser Client by entering a URL (provided by your Collaborator server administrator) into your web browser. The Web Browser Client is where users and administrators can do everything — create and perform reviews, configure personal and system-wide settings and run reports.

The following clients are all optional but very useful. Which one works best for you depends on your version control system, code review environment, and/or personal preferences. Just read the descriptions, and choose what you need or want to use.

The Command-Line Client is a cross-platform client interface to the Collaborator server. It can be used for uploading files, integrating with version control, and querying the server, or as a part of an automated script in a sophisticated ALM / build system.

The GUI Client is a cross-platform graphical client to complement the web-based user interface already provided by the server. Use it to upload materials to a new or existing review easily by integrating with any or a combination of the following Version Control Systems: AccuRev, ClearCase, CVS, PTC Integrity, Perforce, Rational Synergy, Rational Team Concert, Subversion, and Team Foundation Server. (If you use a different VCS, you can always use the Command-Line Client.)

The Tray Notifier is a taskbar icon that shows whether you have any pending tasks in Collaborator. This icon allows you to easily access pertinent reviews and alerts you of any new activity in reviews without requiring active involvement in the web browser client.

The Perforce P4V/P4Win plug-ins integrate with the Perforce GUI clients and allows you to upload changelists into new or existing reviews just by right-clicking on the changelist.

The Eclipse Plug-in lets you upload files and create reviews from within any Eclipse-based application.

The Visual Studio Plug-in gives you the ability to upload files and create reviews from within Visual Studio.

Create a new review?

In the Web Browser Client, creating a new review is as simple as clicking on the Create New Review button at the top right of the action items section of the Collaborator home page and filling out the information in the next screen.

Wait, your Create New Review link is disabled? Congratulations, you are the Collaborator administrator. By default, we do not allow admins to participate in reviews, so the link at the top right does not show up. You can change this setting by going to the Admin link on the menu bar at the top of the screen. Once you are at the Admin menu, scroll down to the "Review Process Options" and set the Allow System Administrator to Perform Reviews setting to Yes.

In the Command-Line Client, use the command: ccollab admin review create to create a new review.

You can also create a new review when adding review materials from the GUI Client, the Eclipse Plug-in, the Visual Studio plugins, and the P4V plugins.. The client will give the option to add the material to a new review or an existing review. Be sure to select Create New Review if you want a new review.

Get around having to *Read* all comments?

In the default configuration, you must *Read* all comments. But you can change this! As the system administrator, you can change this setting; go to the Admin menu, look under the sub-category Roles, select a Role "set", and change Required to Read All Comments to No. This setting is configurable for each role, so you can ensure that all comments are read by someone, but not everyone.

When this setting is configured to Yes, a review participant cannot click the Finish button if the review contains unread comments. When set to No for a role, this setting allows a review participant to click the Finish button even if there are unread comments. Also, you will not be brought back to a review if some other participant has commented after your clicked the Finished button. Read our extended blog entry about this feature here.

But my system administrator will not change this setting...

You’ll have to mark all comments read, but you can do this easily by clicking the super Mark All Comments as Read button at the top left of the Diff Viewer. You will still have to click it for every file (hey, we have to make sure you are looking at the files) but it saves you clicks in the end.

Figure out what "Accept" means?

We get this question often, and the short answer is: "Accept" means whatever you want it to mean, so you do not even have to use it if you do not want to. "Accept" does not have an explicit meaning in Collaborator; it is used differently in different environments. So, you can use this feature however you think best suits your review environment. Once this button is clicked, a green checkmark appears to notify participants that a comment has been Accepted.

Know why (or when) was (or will I be) I brought back to a review?

You may have been brought back into a review because of your Required to Read All Comments setting (See above). Read more about this here.

Put a review on pause?

If you cannot continue or finish reviewing because you are waiting for more information (For example, an answer to a question you posed in a comment), you can put the review on hold by using the Wait button in the Next Steps section. "Wait" keeps you deactivated from the review until the action option you have selected occurs. So the Wait button is for when you want to come back to a review at a later time. If you don’t return and the selected activity does not occur, the review will not be marked finished, so to prevent a review from stalling, be sure to come back and finish it.

Finish a review/Clear an action item?

So you want to finish your part of the review. If you are in a role that has the ability to mark reviews finished, it is pretty simple. First, defects must be marked resolved: either fixed, deleted or tracked externally. Then, under the "Next Steps" section, select Send to Completed. If you are not the only reviewer, a list of actions will appear. You can select an action to indicate that you are finished with the review unless the selected action occurs. If you are required to read all comments, make sure all comments have been marked read before clicking Send to Completed. You will also be brought back to the review if another comment is made after you have approved a review.

Finish a stalled review? Perhaps someone left for vacation, and now the review cannot be completed.

Several things may prevent a review from being marked Complete. If an open defect is keeping you from closing a review, have a system administrator resolve the defect, and you will be able to finish the review. If the absent participant is the only person who has the ability to complete reviews, simply change that participant’s role in the review so that they are assigned to a role that is not required to complete the review. For more detailed information, read the blog post, "Ending a Review Now", here.

Indicate file review order?

You can use the "General Chat" and the "Notes" areas to annotate files and give instructions on suggested file review order. For detailed step-by-step instructions, read our blog post here.

Remove a participant from a review?

Removing a participant from a review simply requires clicking the red 'X' next to their name.

Change my notification level?

You can change the frequency at which you receive notification emails by going to your Preferences menu and then setting the Notification Level in the Notifications tab. When your individual preferences are set to the default setting, Minimal, you only get notifications resulting from other users' actions. You can also change the setting to None or All.

Remove a file?

Once a review has started, removing a file is only possible if there are no comments or defects linked to the file. To remove a file, click the Edit button on the "Review Materials" section of the review summary screen. You should see a [Delete] link to the left of the file or changelist, in which case click the link to delete the file. You may need to set the "View As:" option to "Separate" in order to be able to see the specific version of the file you wish to remove.

If you do not see the link, it indicates that comments or defects are linked to the file or changelist; you will not be able to delete the file because it would orphan comments.

Compare files or choose which version of a file to look at?

To view different versions of the file you are reviewing in the Diff viewer, click on Compare at the top of the Diff viewer. Collaborator shows you a list of all available versions that you can choose from. Use the radio buttons for the right and left side of the Diff Viewer to select the versions. To view only one version, set both left and right sides to the same version.

You can also compare a current version to the latest Accepted version, which is detailed here.

Change the Diff Viewer? I don’t like the Diff Viewer.

You cannot change the aesthetics of our Diff Viewer, but if you prefer other diff viewer software, we do support an External Diff Viewer Launcher, which you can use to review diffs in a separate diff viewer of your preference. To configure this capability, please visit the owner's manual here.

Find out how much time I have spent on each review?

Beginning with Collaborator v6.0, user oriented reports allow you to view your own statistics even if you are not an administrator. View our blog post here.

Do code review in Eclipse?

With the Eclipse Plug-in, you can now review code within Eclipse. To get caught up with the new changes, visit our blog here.

Add files to a review from Visual Studio?

Beginning with Collaborator v6.0, the Visual Studio Add-in offers support for adding files to Collaborator from Visual Studio. To learn more about this add-in and feature, visit our blog here.

Review Office Documents?

Collaborator has native support for Microsoft Office Word (.doc and .docx) and Excel (.xls and .xlsx) documents. To review other types of Microsoft Office Documents you will need to convert them to PDF format first.

Delete/redact a comment?

While we still don’t allow the deletion of comments, we do provide a way to indicate that a comment is now irrelevant and should not be considered for the review. Detailed steps and screenshots are available here.

Compare ClearCase files that are on two different branches?

To compare file versions that are on two different branches in ClearCase you have to specify the specific ClearCase version identifiers. Beginning with v6.0 of Collaborator you can use our GUI Client to do that; detailed steps are available here.