What's New in Helix Swarm

Swarm updates directly in Slack 

With this release, you can stop relying on emails to get updates on your Swarm projects as the Helix Swarm Slack integration is now officially supported.

This enables team members to be notified on both private and public channels for activities such as new reviews and when someone votes on it. Updates to each review are even posted in threads.

To use this feature, the configuration must be added by an Administrator. You can find the feature here: https://helixswarmslack.perforce.com.    

Configure Swarm specifically for each instance of Helix Core it’s connected to

One instance of Swarm has previously been able to support multiple instances of Helix Core but now it can support each instance of Helix Core uniquely.

If you have Helix Core servers with special requirements, you now can override global Swarm settings with Helix Core server specific configuration files.  

When a review includes non-code documents, users will not need to leave Swarm to view them. In this release, documents such as PDFs (.pdf), Word files (.doc), and PowerPoints (.ppt) will be viewable from the review page, streamlining the entire review process. 

To use this feature, install LibreOffice first on your Helix Swarm server. 

Helix Swarm now detects anytime a Jira ticket is mentioned in a review and automatically link to the issue in Jira. You may remember this feature from the old Helix Swarm interface; by popular demand, it has been ported over to the new UI. 

To activate this new feature, please enable the Jira module.

One-click ‘mark comments as read’  

Multiple comments on a single review? Marking a comment as read is now just a single click away on the new Review Page.  

Thank you to all those testing and providing feedback on the new review page! 

Refresh projects for review  

Changed, reconfigured, or deleted projects? In the review page, you can now refresh the project membership. All you need to do is click to the Refresh Projects option on the Review Actions menu.

Send notifications in real-time  

Looking to get your comments to the team ASAP? You can now bypass the 30-minute delay on notifying others with a click of a button. We recommend using for true emergencies, as the default delay was built to help reduce inbox noise….but we understand the need for occasional urgency.

Now you can quickly see the difference between two images with the new diff slider on the review page. Simply drag the slider left and right to see the changes the author of the review has made. This feature ports over old functionality with a slight UI update to make it even easier for you to use.

Resizable File List

Quickly change the width of the file list so that you can control how much of your screen real estate this takes up.

Improved Syntax Highlighting

The popular syntax highlighting feature has been improved to support .tcl files and also make inline edits with red/green highlight easier to read.

Configuration options for @mentions

Introducing more flexibility for the way your team works. There are now three options for how mentions work on the new review page:

• Global displays all users/groups in Helix Swarm (this is the default value).
• Projects only displays project members (users and groups) in the auto-complete list.
• Disabled disables the auto-complete drop down so that it is not displayed.

Open file in new window

Review faster with the new review page. Here, you’ll find a shortcut to open the latest version of the file being reviewed on a new page.

• Iterate Tests For Affected Projects and Branches: Swarm now supports separate test runs for each project and branch when the review spans a number projects and branches. The addition of this feature makes Swarm play together much better with Jenkins.
• Add On-Demand Tests to Workflows: You can now add tests to a workflow and set them to be run manually from reviews that use that workflow. 
• Rerun Tests From the Review: You can now rerun tests from the Test Status dropdown in a review.
• Block Approval If a Test Fails: You can now block approval of a review if a test fails.

You can now add a work-in-progress tag (#wip by default) to a pending changelist description so that you can update the files in your shelf without triggering an update to the associated review or the creation of a new review.

This is useful when a lot of changes are requested for a review, and you want to do them in stages and get them all reviewed when you are happy with your changes. When you are ready for your changes to go back into review, delete #wip from the changelist description and update your shelf to update the review.

Support for APIs older than v9 will be removed in the Swarm 2022.2 release. In the next release of Swarm, we will introduce a new set of v11 APIs. These will refine and extend the v10 APIs, and further standardize the endpoint and response pattern. The v10 APIs will continue to be available for some time to come.

For a list of all bug fixes and more added functionalities, view the full release details.

Now in alignment with the Reviews page, the remade My Dashboard is your one-stop shop for any reviews you need to act on, and now includes abilities such as seeing the review complexity and votes at a glance. You can now find both this page and the Activity feed with a click on the left-hand menu.

Multi-select of projects is now enabled on both the My Dashboard and Reviews pages.

You can now make SSO/Helix Authentication Services optional so that users can login with either this or their Helix Core password.

There is a brand new OVA with a new technology stack including support for latest Ubuntu version to make testing and installation without access to internet easy.

In addition to this, the new version of Helix Swarm comes with the latest version of P4PHP (improving parallel synch behavior), previews of 3D models, API (v10) additions, and more!

See all the information about your reviews at a glance on the new Helix Swarm review page. New icons make it easy to quickly check the state of a review, whether or not a test has passed or failed, and more.

Review filtering has also been improved to make it easier to see which filters you have selected and what is available. 

You can now quickly see the total number of changes associated with a review. The new traffic light complexity column on the reviews list page helps you understand what is involved in completing the review before you dive in.

Looking for more detail? Simply hover over the complexity icon for the specific review.

Extend standard Helix Swarm functionality to search file contents and changelist descriptions with P4Search. P4Search requires a connection to Elasticsearch and the Helix Core server.

P4Search is a tech preview product and is currently unsupported. These products and features are provided to for you to test. Please send any feedback to [email protected].

Helix Swarm 2020.2 now supports Ubuntu 20.04 and CentOS/RHEL 8. It no longer supports CentOS 6 and RHEL 6. This is part of our commitment to focus on supported technology platforms.

Helix Swarm’s workflow feature, released in 2019.2, streamlines development by automating parts of the code review process. In the latest release, you can now add test definitions to these workflows directly in the UI. Tests include a URL that is triggered when a review is created, updated, or submitted. You can use special arguments to pass details from Swarm to your test suite.

Automate test workflows for projects and teams. You can also add tests to  your global workflow to enforce policies across your entire organization.

Managing workflows and tests for your team or enterprise is easier than ever. On the Swarm workflow page, you can now edit, share, and implement workflow rules. On the test page, you can set up and view all tests for your project.

If you have existing workflow rules configured, they will automatically migrate into the new UI when you upgrade.

The original Helix Swarm top menu has been moved to the left side of the page. It's collapsible, giving your teams more space for code reviews. Stay tuned for additional UI enhancements in future releases.

Learn more >>

Need to make a quick edit to a text file then shelve or commit your change? Now you can do this right in Helix Swarm in the Files tab. This will save your teams time when they need to make a change on the fly.

Technology preview features are currently unsupported, with the goal to be fully supported in future releases. Please send your feedback to [email protected].

Learn more >>

You can now configure Swarm to execute a defined set of tests against all reviews in the Swarm instance, regardless of their association with projects.

Set up global tests >>

Swarm now lets you see the results of multiple automated test runs, across multiple tools, in one convenient UI spot. The new API calls let you control the messaging from your test runners, and Swarm keeps track of them all.

Learn more >>

Hover over branches on the project page to display moderator’s names without needing to open the branch.

Swarm can now automatically create new users when they log in, if the Helix Core server is configured to allow it, and the user exists in LDAP.

Swarm users can now see Stream specs and code changes together in code reviews.

If you have Perforce job links configured, you can now specify a custom heading where your links can be added. Learn more >>

If you have continuous integration configured for a project, a new Tests in Progress state now displays. When the test is complete, it will then update to Tests Passed or Tests Failed.

Updates to Pending Changelist Descriptions

You can now update the associated pending changelist description when editing a review description. Simply select the checkbox in the edit dialog.

Blacklist Groups

You can now blacklist groups and users from commenting on a review.

Project Settings UI

Swarm admins can now configure Swarm to allow project members to view a read-only version of the project settings page.

The framework for Helix Swarm has been updated to Zend 3. To plan your upgrade, review Helix Swarm Zend 3 Migration Guide.

Additional markdown file extensions are now supported. These files can be viewed in the new Markdown tab.

Integrate your 2018.2 Helix Core server with Helix SAML to authenticate users via popular solutions, such as Ping Identity and Okta.

​​​​​​See code reviews from multiple Helix Core servers using a single Swarm dashboard.

To maintain high-quality code reviews and streamline workflows, admins can create policies for specific projects and branches. These include:

• Ability to specify how many up-votes are needed before a review can be approved.
• Enable default reviewers that cannot be removed from a review.

Organizations often break up a project into modules and sub-modules. With exclusionary mapping, admins can specify repository paths that should be omitted from a project branch review. This helps reduce project set-up time.

In the 2018.1 release of Helix Swarm, users can start threaded conversations by replying to a review comment. The reply displays as a nested sub-comment. This allows users to have multiple conversations within a single comment.

When submitting code for review, users can request a single pre-commit review with multiple changelists. It’s also easier to add, delete, and replace changelists and files within a review.

Once MFA is implemented on the Helix Core server, Swarm users will be required to provide additional authentication factors to access Swarm. Helix Core integrates with Okta and is configurable with other MFA tools.

The improved side-by-side diff function scales well with numerous review revisions. The updated interface is also more intuitive.

With the new review description field, users can add a description of the review contents, summarizing their work when they submit it for code reviews.

You can now set up batch notifications to automate and reduce the number of notifications users receive.

In the 2017.4 release of Helix Swarm, individual users can unfollow all of the projects and users they are following. Admins can unfollow users and projects for other users.  This can be helpful when you remove users from Helix Core and no longer want them to see the projects and users they are following.

Stop wasting time on lengthy, automated tests once you know your codeline is stable. Helix Swarm 2017.4 lets users disable tests on approve and commit from their global settings.

Set default reviewers for projects and project branches, which get added when you create a new review.

Helix Swarm 2017.3 gives project owners, review authors, and commenters the ability to add group moderators, reviewers, and @ mentions. Instead of manually adding multiple individual users, you can set up a group of individuals who can approve, vote, or comment on a review.

Organize your projects and teams into subgroups to save time and effort when managing large projects. The 2017.3 release of Swarm makes adding individuals to groups — who share the same set of permissions or goals —faster and easier.

Make sure your code reviews never go unnoticed by enabling Swarm to automatically send email notifications to a group mailing list. As with individual users, group owners have the option of setting notification preferences for the group to reduce inbox noise.

In addition to finding or filtering out reviews as an individual reviewer, Swarm now grants individuals the flexibility to find and filter out reviews when they are members of a group that is set as a reviewer.

Sometimes a little outside input helps ensure you didn’t miss anything. Sometimes you need the approval of all major stakeholders to implement a significant change. Now users can require approval from one or all members of a reviewer group when creating a review request for greater flexibility.

Load, view and filter large numbers of open reviews up to 14 times faster. Large organizations can leverage Swarm to increase productivity and manage multiple code review sessions across concurrent projects with many contributing developers.

Admins can now configure Swarm to manage reviews with large numbers of files more efficiently. Swarm prevents excessive load times by optionally reducing “expand all” options for open reviews.

Swarm controls your view of large files with two unique options, including a full view of file content or a file diff view to reference previous versions. Both settings are configured in Swarm to automatically set file size and file diff limits, offering a truncated view of content for faster access and greater efficiency when making review changes.

Organize your review library with active review sorting that filters your review list by priority based on activity. Support efficient workflows across global teams with a clear view of pending reviews to act on.

Access an intuitive and collaborative activity dashboard at login, showing a user the reviews they need to work on next. It shows open reviews needing resolution by reviewers, or reviews needing revisions by authors.

Don't waste time on reviews you don't want or need. The Review Panel feature for Swarm 2017.1 lets users drill down to the workday tasks important to them, filtering by comments, and filtering by vote.

Control precisely the notifications you receive, and when you receive them, based on your preferences. These settings are applied to your profile page. Configure fine-grained controls over when email notifications are sent.

Also, global settings across the entire product can be set by the Swarm administrator, and individual users can customize these settings as necessary, controlling the circumstances in which they receive an email.

Large files to review? Thousands of lines of code to scroll through? Helix Swarm now incorporates faster load times — as fast as one second — for large text files with more than 2,000 lines of code, scaling gracefully and facilitating side-by-side comparisons of files with their base version.

In 2016.2, we introduced private projects. Swarm 2016.3 extends that level of security to your P4V clients. Users who are non-members of private projects will have restricted view modes excluding the review ID and state in P4V Visual Client.

Swarm 2016.3 makes it easier for large teams to scale the review process to multiple iterations by providing users with the option to see all comments or only those tied to a specific version. This enables more effective and efficient code review, even as the number of revisions your team manages multiplies at a staggering rate.

Even the best developer makes mistakes. The next time you accidentally delete a file that a trigger requires for automatic testing, simply replace it and your subsequent triggers won’t continue to return errors (falsely) informing you that your file doesn’t exist.

In this release, IT can now specify active directory usernames of any format and any case for activity streams and more general usage within Swarm for greater clarity and flexibility among users.

Swarm 16.3 enables reviewers to filter the list of reviews to those authored by a specific user for a more flexible, efficient user experience.

Swarm's collaborative approach to code review means providing team members with the latest developments on all of their projects, without hindering their ability to get things done. Eliminate distractions and opt to receive only the notifications most relevant to the review at hand, unless specifically mentioned in another review.

Give new ideas a test run under the radar or hide sensitive projects from external teams and third-party vendors, limiting code review on a need-to-know basis with private projects.

Integrate syntax analyzers for automated review comments that allow teams to detect errors faster, ensure regulatory compliance, and build better software, all thanks to our new review-commenting API.

Add, edit, and delete groups and sub-groups directly within the Swarm UI. Get a second opinion by assigning reviewer groups to your projects and avoid finger-pointing and confusion.

Shift your attention to where it is needed the most. The My Reviews button offers you multiple filter options to suit your needs.

Navigating the toolbar is easier than ever with its contrasting, flat design for a more modern, intuitive user experience.

Spend less time waiting to trace changes in your files. Significant improvements to the blame function have reduced wait times from from 40 to 50 seconds down to a just a couple of seconds.

We're supercharging the social collaboration process. In addition to up-voting an entire thread, you can now use the Like icon to make important comments stand out during the code review process.

The next generation of our REST API is here for faster delivery of secure, reliable, and conformant code. Set Swarm on autopilot and get where you need to go. Now simpler and more powerful than ever before.

Kick-start your projects and add an entire group as a project member in one swift click. All members of the added group (or any of its subgroups) become members of the project. Any changes to the group are automatically reflected in the project.

Access the shelved changes tab from within the Swarm user profile page and get feedback faster so you can commit changes to the server with easier access to pending shelf changes, request reviews, and view review statuses from directly within the Swarm UI.

Significant enhancements Swarm's diff features improve your workflow efficiency by allowing you to diff any two arbitrary versions of a file, not just the last two.

Put hours back into your day and stop the painstakingly slow search for vaguely named files. In addition to the Microsoft Office Suite, Perforce' LibreOffice module now allows you to preview your Keynote, Pages, and Numbers files as PDF documents directly within Swarm.

But using the intuitive new search feature to find project names, users, and files has only just begun. As you enter keywords into the search box, matching items are immediately displayed and grouped by category.

Make comments on multiple lines of code within a file without annoying your teammates. You control when you send notification emails. Less distractions, increased productivity.

Swarm now includes a new Perl-based trigger for Windows, which offers all the features of the Unix trigger, so that there is a single standard trigger script for all supported platforms.