CodeCollaborator 7 now available

I am very disappointed in the upgrade from CodeCollaborator 6 to 7.  I haven't found anything that I like better in the new version.



Here are a number of dislikes that I have.



1) CodeCollaborator seems to be much slower in refreshing webpages due to all the new GUI changes.  This is noticeable when opening review (where you see the new dancing panda) and when you have a big review with a number of comments. 



2) I can't see if the other reviewers are making progress on the review anymore.  There used to be a column for each person in the review to show if each person on the review was finished (hit Accept) with each file.  This is a big dissatisfier.



3) The new "chat-style" window on the side of each file diff screen is too complex now.  It uses too much screen real estate.  The fonts are too large.



4) The yellow chat icons on the a review's main screen are not as obvious as they previously were.  They do not do as good of a job stand out to someone that there is an unread comment.



5) The Defect Log at the top of a review uses the "Label" from a created defect but shows this under the "Text" column.  This is not very intuitive now that you aren't supposed to use the same chat text box when describing the issue for a defect.  Now you use the 1-line "Label" box.



6) I don't want to group the Participants in a review.  Please allow me to save the 'Group By None' as a preference.

Matt,



We appreciate you taking the time to provide us with invaluable feedback.  I commit to you that we will work diligently to address your concerns.  Regarding your issue number 2, I just want to make sure that you are aware of the tooltip that we have implemented so that if you hover over the comment or bug icon to the right of the file names, you will see the status of the individual reviewers.



Regards,



James Wang

GM & VP, Peer Review Products

SmartBear Software

James,



In regards to issue number 2, the tooltip isn't helpful.  In version 6, I could see if everyone had accepted each comment without having to hover over each comment/bug icon.



Another reason why this isn't helpful is because this only works when the reviewer has commented on a file.  If we review a file and have nothing to comment on it, we typically mark the "Overall" Accept button for the file to show that we have approved its changes (and it can be used as a marker to remind ourselves that we've already reviewed the file).  In version 7, I cannot see that someone has already accepted those files.



-Matt

Hi Matt,



Note the hover tooltip is also available on the "overall" conversation link, which is always there even if there are no comments or accepts on the file.



Regards,

Roy

Hi Matt,



Can you submit the issues to support@smartbear.com so we can work with you on your specific use cases and also to get your feedback on our ideas to present the information that you are looking for.  Thanks.



James 

Roy - I do see that now.  Thanks.  It is unfortunate that you have to hover over each "Line ###" or "Overall" now, instead of being able to see all the participant's statuses on the review's main page like in CoCo version 6.  In my opinion, the columns for each participant status do not cause issues with screen space.  (Most people have their monitors in a horizontal position.)



James - I will submit these to the email address you specified.

I've been evaluating the Code Collaborator 7.0 interface (7.0.7022).  My company currently uses the older interace and we are determining if we can move on to the new version.  I found a number of things in the new interface that I was unhappy with.  Here is my list:





Code Collaborator overview screen



    It is not clear how the reviews are sorted when the overview is first opened and once you sort on one of the columns there is no way to get back to that original sort order.





    You cannot sort based on deadline date.





    I've found that it doesn't always show the check-boxes for filtering the content of the review list.  If the check-boxes aren't shown, then sorting by one of the columns causes them to appear.





Code Review overview screen





    The way all of the comments and approvals have been compressed into a single column doesn't make sense to me.  The use of a tooltip to provide this information is not as useful as the way it was previously where there was a column for each participant and you could easily scan the list of files to see who has been going over which parts of the review.





    You are using symbols to represnet the state of a file (open circle for initial).  I couldn't easily find a key to show me what all the different symbols mean.  I think hiding this in the tooltip is not all that helpful.  You could have just left the text "Initial" in the column.





    If a participant is an observer or author that does not have the option to "Finish" a review, the Finish button is disabled and you have to hover over it to get the tooltip to understand why it is not an option.  This is unclear because the text next to the button is telling me to approve the review as-is and has no indication why I cannot.  







In the file review window





    My biggest problem here is that the whole comment/defect area on the left-hand-side of the screen is very hard to understand now.  It used to be very easy to distinguish between the sections which represented a line of code.  In the new interface they seem to all blend together and it's very hard to read.





    I didn't find the way for entering defects to be all that intuitive and I couldn't find how to mark a defect as external.





    I found that in some cases, it forced me to use a label when creating a defect and in other cases I was able to leave it blank.  I was unable to find the reason for the difference.







    I have a defect custom field associated with my template, but it did not display that field when I entered a defect.

Tim - I completely agree with your comments.  CodeCollaborator needs to go back to v6.5 interface in a lot of ways.  These new v7.0 changes need to be customizations where the user can choose to view reviews in the old UI or the new UI.

-Matt

We are currently working on the v7.1 release which will address a lot of these UI issues that we are hearing from our customers about.

The Participant Summary matrix will be back, as well as changes to the overall UI to make better use of the screen space.

Look here in the forums for the release announcement coming soon.