Request Page Redesign - Diff Comments, Request Actions for Role Additions, and More

For some time now we have been working on the request page redesign. This time we have focused on adding comments on changed or removed lines in a diff, supporting add role requests, and enhancing the requests with multiple actions.

The request redesign is part of the beta program.

We started the redesign of the request workflow in August 2022. Then, in September 2022, we focused on the support of multi-action submit requests. We continued in October 2022 with improvements regarding the Build Results tab and superseded conversations, and we presented build results with a pinch of salt in November 2022. In January 2023, we worked on facilitating the review process. In February 2023 we enhanced the review process with comments on changes. Later, in April 2023, we focused on improving the comments on changes and supporting new types of actions. In June 2023 we worked on maintenance action types. In July 2023 we introduced Set Bugowner action and diff comments for non-beta users. In September 2023 we focused on Build Results Summary Gets Into Shape. Later 2023, in November, we added the Build Status Refresh and Other Insights on Our Request Page. The year 2024 started with Revamping the Request Build Status Page and Introducing the Dark Mode. We continued in February with Build Results Summary Chart Links to Build Results Overview. And now we did some Improvements On the Redesigned Request Page.

Comments on Diffs

A review process is incomplete until it is possible to have a conversation about code changes. Sometimes a reviewer would like to know the reason for a specific change, or the creator of the request would like to point out a line of code they have changed in their request. It is easy to lose track of conversation when the process is not seamlessly defined. That’s why now it is possible to add comments on changed and removed lines.

Please bear in mind that this is only the first step. There are more updates yet to come like notifying the involved users when someone writes a comment on a diff or displaying that comment in the general conversation tab.

Add Request Actions for Role Additions

A request in OBS can have many types of actions. Until now, the redesign had focused on the submit actions only. This time we have also covered the role addition actions, which are used when a user or a group wants to be a Maintainer or Bugowner of a project or a package. The UI is adapted for the add role actions to provide action-specific information that can help the reviewers.

Next And Previous Buttons

To address requests with many actions we already have a dropdown with the list of actions. This time we have taken it one step forward and introduced the next and previous buttons to navigate between the request actions.

How To Give Us Feedback

There are two ways to reach us:

• On GitHub, by opening an issue and / or commenting on an already opened issue.
• On IRC, by talking directly to us. We are in the channel #opensuse-buildservice on Libera.Chat.

Please note that we favor GitHub to gather feedback as it allows us to easily keep track of the discussions.