SmartBear Collaborator for Visual Studio Extension

Using the SmartBear Collaborator for Visual Studio extension you can view, create and modify Collaborator reviews directly from within the Microsoft Visual Studio IDE.

This file explains how to install the extension to Visual Studio and configure it.

Requirements

• To install and use the extension, you need the following software on your computer:
  • Microsoft Visual Studio:
    • Visual Studio 2019,
    • Visual Studio 2017,
    • Visual Studio 2015.
    The extension supports Community, Professional and Enterprise editions.
  • Collaborator Client. The extension uses the Client to upload review materials to the Collaborator Server, and to work with source control repositories.
  • Collaborator Client must be properly configured to work with your source control system.
• The extension works with Collaborator Server 10.0 and later. To support e-signatures, Collaborator Server 10.1 is required.

Installing & Configuring

You download the extension as a .zip archive. To install the extension:

1. Unpack the archive contents to some folder on your computer, and double-click the CollaboratorVSExtension.vsix package.
   This will launch the installer.
2. In the VSIX installer, select the desired Visual Studio version and press Install.

Important: After installing the extension, you must configure it:

1. Start Visual Studio, and from its main menu, select Tools > Options.
2. In the subsequent Options dialog, select Collaborator from the tree on the left.
3. Specify the following settings:
   • Connection settings (required):

     Server URL	The URL of your Collaborator server. For instance, http://collab-myserv:8080. The URL must include the port number and the protocol name. If you do not know the URL, ask you system administrator.
     Username and Password	Your Collaborator user account and password for connecting to your Collaborator server. Using empty passwords is not recommended.
     Use Proxy	Enable if you connect to the Internet via proxy server. If you use proxy and want to connect to a Collaborator server that is deployed on your local machine, then specify Server URL in the "Machine_Name:8080" format rather than "localhost:8080" or "127.0.0.1:8080" formats.
     Proxy host and Proxy port	The URL of a proxy server and its port number.
     Proxy login and Proxy password	The login and password, if proxy server requires authentication.

     Click Test to check if the extension will be able to connect to the Collaborator server.
      
   • Environment settings (required):

     Path to ccollab.exe	The fully-qualified path to the Collaborator Command-Line Client (ccollab.exe).
     Local Cache Folder	The fully-qualified name of a temporary folder, in which the extension will store review materials.

      
   • Logger (optional)

     This group controls what information will be displayed in Visual Studio’s Output window and in the debug log.

   • SCM (required):

     Visual Studio extension share SCM configurations with GUI Client and command-line client. In this section you must select which of SCM configurations the extension will use to upload review materials. Optionally, in the subsections of this section, you may create new or modify existing SCM configurations.

     Configurations

     Lists the available configurations and displays their parameters. To specify which of SCM configurations the extension will use to upload review materials, select a configuration in the drop-down list and press Set as Default.

      
   • View (optional)

     This group controls how code editor will display comments and defects.

Running

After you installed and configured the extension, select View > Other Windows > Collaborator View from Visual Studio’s main menu to start working.

Documentation

For information on using the extension, see Collaborator documentation.

Removing Extension

1. Start Visual Studio.
2. From the main menu, select Tools > Extensions and Update.
3. In the subsequent dialog box, find the SmartBear Collaborator for Visual Studio extension and click Uninstall.
4. To complete the uninstallation, restart Visual Studio.