Download Review Board User Manual

CHAPTER
ONE
GETTING STARTED
1.1 Introduction
Review Board is a tool for reviewing source code, documentation and other text-based files. It offers a powerful webbased interface with broad browser support for managing review requests and reviewing code, as well as command
line tools to simplify the review request submission process.
Review Board supports the following browsers:
• Firefox 3.0+
• Internet Explorer 9+
• Google Chrome
The following browsers are unsupported but known to work:
• Firefox 2.0
• Internet Explorer 8
• Opera 9+
Review Board is designed to fit in with existing pre-commit review and post-commit review methods.
1.2 What is Code Review?
1.2.1 Overview
Code review is the process of making pieces of source code available for other developers to review, with the intention
of catching bugs and design errors before the code becomes part of the product.
Code review dramatically helps in the quality of products. By catching mistakes early, a lot of bad problems in a
product can be avoided. Not all companies or developers take advantage of code review, but more and more are
making it a part of their development culture and requirements.
1.2.2 Types of Code Review
There are two types of code review: pre-commit and post-commit.
Pre-commit review is a form of code review where code is reviewed before going into the codebase. In this method,
a diff file is uploaded to Review Board, which reviewers can comment on, and once there’s approval the code is
committed to the repository.
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