Only show changes-since-last-review in PRs?

[Brandon LaCava]

When we used to use Bitbucket Server the PR interface would keep track of reviewed files, and if subsequent changes were pushed to the repo the PR interface would only show those new changes.

However, now that we use Bitbucket Cloud the PR interface always shows all changes, from all commits, regardless if previous changes have already been reviewed. This makes reviewing large PRs somewhat challenging. Is there a way to change the behavior so the PR interface only shows the changes since the last review?

Thanks.

[Riley Venable · Accepted solution]

Unfortunately, Bitbucket Cloud currently does not have an option to only show changes since the last review in the pull request interface. However, you can use the file tree in the right sidebar or the navigation buttons in the header to navigate between files of the pull request. Additionally, you can load files individually across all pull requests by selecting the "Individually" option under the "Load files" heading on the Global diff view settings dialog.

[Patrik S]

Hello @Brandon LaCava ,

Just adding to Riley's response, we currently have a feature request to implement the functionality of marking files as reviewed in Pull Requests : 

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/BCLOUD-19679

And also to implement an interactive review process as in Bitbucket Server, where you could use the feature "Start Review" : 

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/BCLOUD-21268

I would suggest you to add your vote on those feature requests since this helps both developers and product managers to understand the interest. Also, make sure you add yourself as a watcher in case you want to receive first-hand updates from those tickets. Please note that all features are implemented with this policy in mind.

Thank you, @Brandon LaCava !

Patrik S

[Brandon LaCava]

Will do. Thanks.

[Simon Schmitt]

> Bitbucket Cloud currently does not have an option to only show changes since the last review in the pull request interface.

@Riley Venable / @Patrik S is there a plan to add this feature to Bitbucket Cloud? Or can it be requested?

Thanks!

[Patrik S]

Hello @Simon Schmitt ,

The feature to mark files as reviewed was recently released as announced in the blogpost Stay focused by marking PR as reviewed.

As for the equivalent of "Start review" of Bitbucket Server, we have the feature request below which is already in progress :

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/BCLOUD-21268

You can add yourself as a watcher in that feature request, so you will be notified by email whenever there's any update :)

Thank you, @Simon Schmitt !

Patrik S

[Simon Schmitt]

Hey @Patrik S ,

Thanks for those links again. But I was asking about the option to "show changes", like on Bitbucket Server, where you see a diff between the last push & a subsequent force-push into a PR. Is this coming / planned / can we request this or is it clear this is not on the table?

This is currently a major hurdle for teams that are used to update PR's frequently. The developers doing a code review have to read through files over and over again, while remembering the old state of the file in order to give a high quality feedback. Marking files as "viewed" does help, but is not a solution if files have more than a couple of LoC. This is very tedious.

Thanks again,

Simon

[Patrik S]

Hey @Simon Schmitt ,

Thank you for the clarification. I understand the feature you are looking for is the one where you can filter only the new changes since the last review. This is usually referred to as an interactive review and we also have an open feature request to implement it on Bitbucket Cloud : 

• https://jira.atlassian.com/browse/BCLOUD-19687

Feel free to leave your feedback on the comments of that feature with your use case to give it traction :)

Thank you!

Patrik S

[Lee Marshall]

A highly satisfactory feature on an alternative product shows a timeline of commits into a PR, nice circles for each one on a line, and check marks on individual changed versions of files that have been marked viewed and the ability to click on two circles on the timeline to select revisions within the PR branch to diff.  Come to think of it, I think there were two copies of the timeline: one for each side of the diff.

If exact relationship of review comments and code has become murky -- where you abandon them as "obsolete" -- this also enables easy(er) clarification of their original placement.

If I last reviewed the seventh commit to the branch and now we're on the twelfth, that's the difference I want to review first and comment on.  Likely before approving I'll look back to review the totality of the change one final time; but while it's in process it's much easier to focus on the incremental work.

Reviewable has some nice features here https://docs.reviewable.io/files.html and even your fading Crucible tool did as well.  For example.