Work with review discussions

As a reviewer, you can add comments about a single component or an entire review in a discussion thread using the review's Collaboration panel. Use this feature when you don't want to add comments directly in the review content using the Review editor.

Review Components panel. Use this list to select a component that you want to start a discussion about. After you select a component, the discussion thread specific to that component are loaded.

Review panel. Use this area to see comments applied directly to specific content in a specific component. After you select a component, the comments specific to that text are loaded.

Collaboration. Use this area to see all the users participating in the review. You can also work with discussions at the level of a component (Component Discussions) or the review (Discussions).

Permissions may be required.

  • If the review coordinator set the Resolving state restricts discussion option when creating or updating the review:
    • Only the review coordinator or administrator can edit or delete messages in the Component Discussions and Discussions (for the entire review) panes when the review is in the Resolving state.
    • Review coordinators cannot delete other reviewer's comments in the Reviewing state, only in the Resolving state.

    • No new discussions can be saved by any type of user when the review is in the State of Resolving.

      • The Create button is active in both the Component Discussions and the Discussions panes.
      • You can enter text on the Create Discussion screen, but after you select Create, the screen closes without any changes being saved.
    • Users who are not the review coordinator or an administrator can open the Collaboration panel when the review is in the Resolving state, but the following panes are greyed out and not available:
      • Component Discussions
      • Discussions (for the entire review)

    • If the review is not in a State of Resolving, reviewers can add, edit, and delete their own comments in the Collaboration panel until all users have completed their review or the review is cancelled.

  • If the review coordinator did not set the Resolving state restricts discussion option when creating or updating the review, any user participating in the review can edit or delete discussions until the entire review is marked as Completed or Cancelled.

Tips and tricks

Adding a comment outside of the component text is helpful when:

  • A component has a Scope of Context Only.
  • There are too many comments in the component already. (Text added to the Component Discussions pane is not shown in the review editor.)

Each component in a review has its own Component Discussions pane. Select the component you want to discuss first, and then open the Collaboration panel, go to the Component Discussions pane, and add text.

The discussion panes (for a specific component and the entire review) are always shown in a review regardless of component type or user permissions.

  • Unless you are the review coordinator or an administrator, you can only edit and delete messages that you post in the discussions panes.
  • Review coordinators and administrators can only edit and delete other user's messages when the review is in the State of Resolving.
  • If you are the review coordinator or the reviewer who started a thread, you can delete it if there are no replies. If there are replies, you must delete those first before deleting the thread.