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Prerequisites

  • Risksheet installed and configured in your Polarion project
  • Access to the sheet configuration for the target document (see Find Configuration Files)
  • Users with comment creation permissions on the target work items

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How Approval-Based Reviews Work

Approval-based reviews use Polarion’s approval comment system. Each review created through Risksheet is stored on the underlying work item as an approval comment: a comment that Polarion tags as an approval comment, with the fixed title “Approval comment”. The review column shows only approval comments, separating formal approval feedback from regular discussion comments. These are the same approval comments that Polarion and the Approvals sidebar show; to file approvals themselves, see Work Item Approvals.
diagram
1

Enable Approval-Based Reviews

Open the sheet configuration (risksheet.json) for your document and add the reviews section with reviewManager set to ApprovalBased. The configuration editor (v25.5.0+) supports YAML editing with syntax highlighting:
No additional properties are required for the approval-based strategy. The approval-based mechanism reuses Polarion’s built-in approval comment system, so reviewer identity, timestamps, and resolution status are all managed by Polarion itself.
Review mode precedenceRisksheet supports three mutually exclusive review managers: CommentBased, ApprovalBased, and WorkItemBased. If multiple modes are configured, CommentBased takes the highest precedence, followed by WorkItemBased, then ApprovalBased. Ensure you only configure one reviewManager value.
2

Toggle Review Columns

After updating the sheet configuration, display the review columns in the grid:
  1. Open the Risksheet in your Polarion LiveDoc
  2. Use the review toggle command in the toolbar
  3. Two system columns appear, under the header group Approval Comments:
    • Approval Comments (reviewsRendered) — displays existing approval comments
    • Add Approval Comment (reviewsAdd) — interface for creating new approval comments
    The other review managers label these columns Reviews and Add Review.
    The sheet with the Approval Comments and Add Approval Comment columns, one row showing an approval comment by its author and date

    The review columns in approval-based mode

Review columns are off by default to keep the grid compact during routine risk analysis. Toggle them on when you reach the review stage of your workflow.
3

Create an Approval Review

To add an approval on a risk item:
  1. Locate the risk item row in the grid
  2. Click the add review control in the Add Approval Comment column
  3. Enter your approval comment text
  4. Submit the review
The system creates a Polarion approval comment with the fixed title “Approval comment” and your text as plain text content. It also appears in the Approvals sidebar and in Polarion’s own approvals view. Validation rules are applied before creation — empty text or content exceeding length limits is rejected.
Approval comments vs. regular commentsOnly approval comments appear in the Approval Comments column: comments Polarion tags as approval comments, wherever they were filed, and comments titled “Approval comment”. Regular Polarion comments are not shown. This separation lets you maintain general discussion comments alongside formal approval records on the same work item.
4

View Approval Reviews

The Approval Comments column displays approval comments with the following details:The system automatically filters out:
  • Resolved comments — approval comments marked as resolved in Polarion. To keep them visible, set approval.showResolved: true in the sheet configuration; they are then marked (resolved).
  • Unresolvable comments — comments that cannot be loaded
Reviews are wrapped with the risk_reviews CSS class for styling customization through cell styles.

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Comparison with Other Review Managers

Risksheet provides three review managers, each suited to a different audit and process scenario:
Polarion approval workflow integrationRisksheet approval review creates approval-tagged comments but does not trigger Polarion’s formal approval workflow state transitions (such as draft to reviewed to approved). For full workflow state management, use Polarion’s document or work item list views, or use the Work Item-Based review manager and configure a Polarion workflow on the review work item type. To file Polarion work item approvals (approve or disapprove) from the sheet, use the Approvals sidebar; see Work Item Approvals.

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When to Use Approval-Based Reviews

Approval-based reviews are suitable when:
  • You need to distinguish formal approval feedback from regular discussion comments
  • Your audit process requires a clear trail of approval actions, but does not require a separate linked work item per review
  • You want approvals visible in Polarion’s standard approval comment views
  • Full work item-based traceability and Polarion workflow state transitions are not required
If your process requires a formal Polarion workflow on each review (draft to reviewed to approved), or you need to query reviews as first-class work items, prefer the Work Item-Based review manager instead.

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Troubleshooting

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Verification

After completing configuration, you should now see:
  1. The review toggle available in the Risksheet toolbar
  2. Approval comments created through Risksheet appear with the “Approval comment” title in Polarion
  3. Only approval comments display in the Approval Comments column — regular comments are filtered out
  4. Reviewer names, timestamps, and content render correctly
  5. Resolved or unresolvable approval comments are hidden from the Approval Comments column, unless approval.showResolved is set

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See Also