Code Review Tools Comparison

The following tools are meant to organize the peer and lead code reviews, and handles the workflow, attached is the comparison of a couple of eclipse plugins and one of the open source review code web applications.

There is no introduction to the tools but if you're interested in this subject you can use the reference links for more information about them.

Criteria	Jupiter plugin	ReviewClipse	ReviewBoard
Detects user defined on svn configuration	NA	Available	Admin should manage the site users.
Create Review tasks automatically from SVN commits.	NA	Available by default	Available by configuration
Save reviews in database	NA, saves  in XML under SVN	NA, saves in XML under SVN	Available, mySQL
Show File Diff. while review	NA.	Between current and previous version	Between any selected version from the revision list.
Search capabilities	Filter by review status, finished, pending, rework...	Search by date range, author, reviewer, or content.	Filter by group, submitter, or my requests.
Supported version control.	SVN	SVN	SVN, CVS, Clearcase…
Eclipse Plugin for issue to code navigation.	Available with navigation to the specific line of code	Available, but no navigation to the line number.	NA
Web UI	NA	NA	Available for user and administration, web and database server is required.
Active Community	Moderate active	Moderate active	Active

ReviewClipse creates review tasks automatically for the SVN changes, the developers should not commit their code unless the change is ready for review otherwise a lot of review tasks will be generated for intermediate commits.

On the other hand Jupitar require you to initiate the review task manfully by selecting the files which add a risk that some changes will be missed in reviews, but it’s handier in controlling what to review and when to review.

For ReviewBoard its one of a review code server family in which the developer initiate the review before commit, outside of the IDE the reviewers will get the new assignment and they can put their comments and pass or fail the change, it allows attachments and screenshots; I didn’t try it fully but I saw the online life demo for creating the reviews and the reviews workplace.

Reference:

http://www.reviewboard.org/docs/manual/1.5/

http://code.google.com/p/jupiter-eclipse-plugin/

http://www.inso.tuwien.ac.at/projects/reviewclipse/