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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 Comment-Based Reviews Work

Comment-based reviews use standard Polarion work item comments as the review mechanism. When a reviewer adds a review through Risksheet, it creates a regular Polarion comment on the underlying work item. Each review displays the author name, timestamp, optional title, and formatted content. Because reviews are stored as native Polarion comments, all review data lives in Polarion — Risksheet does not maintain a separate review store. Reviews are subject to standard Polarion authorization and audit infrastructure.
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1

Enable Comment-Based Reviews

Open the sheet configuration for your document in the configuration editor (which supports YAML editing) and add the reviews section with reviewManager set to CommentBased:
reviews:
  reviewManager: CommentBased
That is the only required configuration property. No additional settings are needed for comment-based reviews.
Risksheet supports three mutually exclusive review strategies: CommentBased, WorkItemBased, and ApprovalBased. If multiple modes are configured, CommentBased takes the highest precedence, followed by WorkItemBased, then ApprovalBased. Configure only one reviewManager value to avoid confusion.
Risksheet approval review (ApprovalBased) creates approval-tagged comments but does not trigger Polarion’s formal approval state transitions (draft → reviewed → approved). If you need full Polarion approval workflow integration, use Polarion’s native approval features in addition to Risksheet reviews.
2

Toggle Review Columns in the Grid

Once comment-based reviews are configured, display the review columns in the grid:
  1. Open the Risksheet in your Polarion LiveDoc
  2. Use the review toggle command in the toolbar to show review columns
  3. Two system columns appear:
    • Reviews column — displays existing review comments for each risk item
    • Add Review column — provides the interface for creating new reviews
Row heights automatically adjust when you toggle review columns to accommodate the review content.
3

Create a Review

To add a review on a risk item:
  1. Locate the risk item row in the grid
  2. Click the add review control in the Add Review column
  3. Enter a title (optional) and review text (required)
  4. Submit the review
The review is saved as a standard Polarion comment on the underlying work item. Content is stored as plain text (not rich text).
Since comment-based reviews are standard Polarion comments, they appear in the Polarion work item detail view outside of Risksheet. This gives full visibility without locking review data inside the grid.
4

View Existing Reviews

The Reviews column displays all active reviews for each risk item:
FieldDescription
AuthorReviewer’s full name from Polarion (falls back to user ID if name is unavailable)
TimestampCreation date and time in yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm format
TitleOptional title displayed in bold (if provided during creation)
ContentReview text rendered as HTML
Reviews are displayed in chronological order. The system automatically filters out:
  • Resolved comments — comments marked as resolved in Polarion
  • Unresolvable comments — comments that cannot be loaded (e.g., from deleted users)
5

Customize Review Styling (Optional)

Review content is wrapped with the risk_reviews CSS class. You can customize the appearance by targeting this class in your Polarion CSS:
.risk_reviews {
  font-size: 12px;
  line-height: 1.4;
  padding: 4px;
}
See Configure Cell Styles for more styling options.

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When to Use Comment-Based Reviews

AdvantageLimitation
Simplest setup — single configuration propertyLimited metadata per review
Reviews visible in Polarion’s native comment historyNo separate work item for tracking
No additional work item types requiredCannot query reviews independently via Polarion
Comments preserved in work item audit trailPlain text only (not rich text)
Comment-based reviews are best suited for lightweight review feedback where formal approval workflows or independently queryable review records are not required. If your process needs structured review records that can be queried, linked to other artifacts, or fed into traceability matrices, consider Configure Work Item-Based Reviews instead.

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Troubleshooting

IssueCauseSolution
Reviews do not appear after creationBrowser cache or session issueRefresh the page and verify the comment exists in Polarion
Cannot create reviewsInsufficient permissionsVerify the user has comment creation permissions on the work item
Review shows user ID instead of namePolarion user profile incompleteUpdate the reviewer’s full name in Polarion user administration
Review columns not visibleReview toggle not activatedUse the toolbar toggle to show review columns
Multiple review modes seem activeMore than one reviewManager configuredConfirm only one mode is set in the sheet configuration

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Verification

After completing configuration, you should see:
  1. The review toggle available in the Risksheet toolbar
  2. Reviews and Add Review columns appear when toggled on
  3. New reviews created through the grid appear as comments in Polarion’s work item detail view
  4. Author names, timestamps, and content display correctly in the Reviews column

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See Also

Last modified on July 10, 2026