Comment on merge request changes in the Web IDE

Reviewing a merge request, when done thoroughly, often requires looking beyond the lines that changed. This might require looking at different parts of files that were changed or files that didn't change at all. The Web IDE makes it easy to browse the entire code base with a file tree, fuzzy file finder and even supports viewing the merge request diff. It would be great to be able to add comments too.

This would also help reviewing large code changes which are hard to view in the merge request interface.

Further details

This would be useful for engineers who perform thorough code reviews regularly. Currently these engineers must checkout the code locally to do these kind of code reviews, and require them to switch between the diff in the merge request interface and the local IDE. Being able to do this in the Web IDE would remove the need to checkout the changes (context switch from other local work) and remove the need to tab backwards and forwards between two view of the same file (merge request diff, and local IDE).

It would also be useful for large code changes that span many files. These are hard to view and navigate in the current merge request interface.

Proposal

  • Add comments to any line in any file on a merge request using the web ide so that I can do code review in the Web IDE

What does success look like, and how can we measure that?

Success would be code reviews being conducted in the web ide, and comments being added to unchanged lines and files, demonstrating that more comprehensive code reviews occur once the barriers are removed.

Links / references