Chapter 3. The Review Process

QuickRev implements a Complete Review Cycle.
This means the review continues as long as review comments will be made. The following diagram demonstrates this review cycle.

Figure 3.1. QuickRev Review Cycle

3. Correction

If the reviewers have made comments the review continues with the Correction phase. The initiator has to value the comments by filling in the remaining fields in the Comments dialog and, of course, correct the necessary changes in the reviewed files.
Afterwards a new review cycle has to be started. This includes the selection of the new file versions, adding of new files and removing of deleted files, so that the reviewers can review the changes made by their comments. The phase ends with the completion of the conclusion at the Conclusion tab.

Correction Phase

3.1. Create A New Project

Select file references

The easiest way to create a new project is to pass the files to be reviewed as parameters via command line. See chapter Command Line Options for more information.
Alternatively you can add, remove and change files like shown below.

Figure 3.2. Create Review Options

Add new files to the project
To add new files to the project use the Project → Add File ... menu or the Add File ... button at the File References tab.

Note

To add files and change the file properties (versions etc.) the selected review phase has to be Creation or ALL otherwise the input fields and buttons will be disabled. When creating a new project Creation is selected as default, so normally you don't have to care about this.

See Change Review Phase and Cycle for more information.

	Tip
	Review files can be added via command line as well. See chapter Command Line Options for more information.

Add files from changeset
If subversion is enabled in the Preferences dialog, review files can be added by selecting the corresponding changesets. This can be done via the Project → Add Files From Changeset ... menu.
See Add Files From Changeset ... for more information.
Change file selection
To change an already added file click at the filename field and select the new path. Alternatively remove the file via its Remove button and add the right one again.
Delta Review
Selecting Delta Review indicates, that not the whole file has to be reviewed, but the differences between two different file versions. By selecting the check box another version selection combo box (Base) will appear which allows the selection of the base version.

Note: QuickRev will select automatically the latest known review version of a file as base version if the review history of this file is available. For more information about the review history take a look at chapter Review History. To view the review history of a file use the History button.

Note: For selecting the base and review version of all added files by different topics use the Select Base Version and Select Review Version menus described in point 6.
Select content type
The Content Type manages how files will be displayed in QuickRev. Use text for text files, i.e. source code reviews and non-text for files where the content of the files cannot be displayed in QuickRev (e.g. pdf files). For non-text files comments can be assigned to the whole file only by describing the position the comments depends to (no line numbers). File extensions for non-text files can be configured via the Preferences dialog or via configuration files, so QuickRev will select the right content-type automatically. Other content-types like the qr:uml type are used from plug-ins which have to be loaded. See Plug-Ins for more information.
Select file versions
Use the version selector combo boxes Review and Base to select the versions relevant for the review.
Select file versions by topic
Via the Select Base Version and Select Review Version menus versions for the review files can be selected by different topics. Please take a look at the tool tips of every sub-menu-item to get a description. Files where a selection is not possible will be skipped, i.e. if you select Select Base Version → PREV and a file has no previous version of the selected review version the selection for this file remains untouched.
Sort files
Via the Sort Files menu the review files can be sorted alphabetically or in a user defined order. It is useful to bring the files in a 'recommended reading order' to simplify the review.
Remove a file
Use the Remove button to remove a file.
History state
Via the History States menu the current review sttate of a file can be displayed at the History buttons for each file as a little icon to have a better overview during file selection. Furthermore a baseline can be set for each version control system individually which marks a version / tag up to which all file versions will be regarded as 'reviewed'.

View selected files

Figure 3.3. Load Files Menu

When adding files and changing the file properties at the File References tab the content of the files will not be loaded automatically, so when you want to see the file content of the selected files and versions use the Files → Load Files menu. This menu is colored red every time a reload is needed. Note: for the creation of a review it is not necessary to load the file content. When reviewing the files by the reviewers the file content will be loaded automatically on startup of QuickRev.

Describe what to review and select reviewers

Figure 3.4. Information Fields

At the Information tab you should leave a shored description of the review in the Description field. You can use the context menu of the Description field to insert the version information of the selected files via the Insert File Version Description menu item.

Add reviewers to the project in the Reviewers list. It is not necessary to add reviewers, because if someone starts the review, who is not contained in the list, he/she will be added automatically. But adding reviewers makes it easier e.g. to send email notifications automatically to the selected reviewers.

To change the initiator click on the name link of the initiator.

	Configuration
	A list of users can be predefined via the Preferences dialog or for globally via configuration files to be selected easily as reviewer or initiator.

	Configuration
	The fields on the Information tab can be changed via configuration, so additional fields can be added and the existing once removed. For more information about this take a look at the configuration chapter.

Fill in conclusion

Figure 3.5. Initiator Conclusion Fields

Finally fill in the input fields at the Conclusion tab for the initiator. Now everything is prepared to perform the review.

	Configuration
	The fields on the Conclusion tab can be changed via configuration, so additional fields can be added and the existing once removed. For more information about this take a look at the configuration chapter.

Save and publish project

Save the project via menu Project → Save As ... or export the whole project to be reviewed without access to a version control system via the menu Project → Export .... See Export A Project (qrx-files) for more information.

To publish the project use the Extras → Send Email Notification ... menu. See Send Email Notification for more information about sending and configuring email notifications. When sending email notifications it is even possible to attach an project and/or exported project without saving it before. This can be useful when saving the project to some common location, but attaching an export file for reviewers without access to the version control system.

To simplify work you can combine different commands via the Tools menu, so you can e.g. save the project file, put it under version control and send an email notification in one step. For more information refer to the Tools chapter.

	Tip
	Make use of the Input Verification dialog which will show you input fields which are not completed yet. The dialog can be reached via the menu Project → Verify Input .... For more information see Input Verification dialog.