Zulip 7.0: Threaded open-source crew chat

2023-05-31 12:35:51

We’re excited to announce the discharge of Zulip Server 7.0, containing tons of
of latest options and bug fixes!

Zulip
is an open-source crew chat utility designed to assist folks collaborate to
clear up any problem. With conversations
organized by topic, Zulip is
ideal for each dwell and asynchronous
communication. Fortune 500 firms, main open-source initiatives, and
hundreds of different organizations use Zulip every single day. Zulip’s 100% open-source
software program is out there as a managed cloud service or
a self-hosted solution.

Zulip Server 7.0 is a significant launch, with over 3800 new commits merged throughout
the venture because the 6.0 launch final November. Notable new options embrace
scheduled messages, unmuting subjects in muted streams, many design enhancements,
and rather more!

A complete of 107 folks contributed commits to Zulip because the 6.0 launch,
bringing the venture to over 1200 code contributors. Zulip is outstanding for its
variety of main contributors, with 80 people who’ve
contributed 100+ commits.

Enormous due to everybody who’s
contributed
to Zulip over the previous few months, whether or not by writing code and documentation,
reporting issues,
translating,
supporting us financially, taking part in
discussions within the
Zulip development community, or simply
suggesting concepts! We couldn’t do that with out the tons of of individuals giving
again to the Zulip group.

At the moment marks a launch of the Zulip server and internet utility. We’d additionally prefer to
share essential information and updates for the venture as an entire because the 6.0
launch final fall:

Buyer tales

Our web site now options the story of how the Finish Level Dev software program
consultancy makes use of Zulip to
manage hundred of projects at once.
Finish Level makes use of quite a lot of chat instruments picked by their purchasers, from Slack and
Groups, to Google Chat and Skype. Having skilled the entire gamut of
choices, Zulip is the clear winner for Finish Level’s inner communication.

“Zulip removes a lot of the ache that makes folks not wish to use crew chat
apps. We find it irresistible.”
— Jon Jensen, CTO of Finish Level Dev
[customer story]

We additionally shared the story of how the startup Atolio
built a transparent communication culture
with Zulip.

“In Slack, two thirds of communication will not be in public simply to keep away from noise…
Zulip lets us have conversations in public, not behind closed doorways.”
— Gareth Watts, co-founder and CTO of
Atolio [customer story]
We have now rewritten the web page on our web site that explains how Zulip’s distinctive
topic-based threading mannequin
helps teams communicate more effectively,
incorporating the experiences that so a lot of our customers have generously shared
with us.
Our
year in review blog post
highlights some stats from 2022, together with the most well-liked emoji on Zulip
Cloud. You too can study Zulip’s most underused options (and provides them
a attempt!).

Apps

The Zulip cellular apps for iOS and
Android have made
numerous improvements for a
higher consumer expertise and a fuller set of Zulip options:

Along with all our work on the present apps, we’ve
started a prototype
of a next-generation Zulip cellular app in Flutter. We’re
hiring for that venture; if the position sounds
like it could be a superb match, we’d love to listen to from you.

Zulip Terminal updates since
the Zulip Server 6.0 launch embrace higher subject autocomplete, in addition to many
enchancment to
user documentation.

Evaluations and interviews

Sharing your expertise with Zulip on product comparability web sites helps others
determine whether or not Zulip is the fitting software for them. If you need to depart your
suggestions (good or unhealthy) on G2,
Software Advice,
or different websites you employ, we’d actually recognize it!

Mentorship

Our group is
fully committed to
helping bring up
the following era of open-source contributors. 2023 is the eighth consecutive
12 months that Zulip is taking part in
Google Summer of Code, and despite the fact that
this system has but to formally start, the 7.0 launch consists of quite a few
contributions by this 12 months’s cohort. We are able to’t wait to see what our 13 GSoC
2023 members accomplish this summer time!

“At the moment marks my 8-month milestone of contributing and being lively within the
group. By this lovely journey, I’ve discovered so much from skilled
builders and the group, and I simply love contributing to this group. I
couldn’t have requested for a greater group ❤️.”
— Palash Baderia, Google Summer season of Code 2023
participant

We proudly sponsor free Zulip Cloud Standard hosting
for about 1200 open-source projects,
non-profits,
educational institutions, and
academic research groups. All eligible
organizations are inspired to
join the program!

The most important options and enhancements described under are the tip of the iceberg
of all of the work that goes into a significant Zulip launch. We dedicate numerous
consideration to the little issues that assist make Zulip
a joy to use,
resembling fine-tuning frequent interactions, investigating and fixing tons of of
minor bugs, clarifying the UI and the API, and many others. Even if you happen to aren’t searching for
new options, every main Zulip Server launch provides a considerably higher
total expertise.

Redesign

The most important information for this launch is that Zulip is halfway via a significant visible
redesign. The redesign is meant to provide the app a clear, fashionable look, whereas
preserving and enhancing Zulip’s extremely environment friendly interplay design. Key
adjustments on this launch embrace:

New background colours enable you to deal with the messages you’re studying.
Absolutely colorized message header bars make it simpler to inform which stream you’re
viewing.
Messages with a private
mention are highlighted in a
totally different colour than group or wildcard mentions, and your title is bolded to
stand out when you find yourself talked about.

The divider strains exhibiting dates have been streamlined, so you possibly can at all times see
at a look when all of the messages in your display had been despatched.
Banners within the compose field have been redesigned with a contemporary look, and particular
formatting has been added for
keyboard shortcuts famous in
tooltips.

New and improved workflows

Now you can schedule a message to
be despatched at a later time. For instance, if you’re working outdoors of your
teammates’ common enterprise hours, you possibly can schedule a message for tomorrow
morning to keep away from interrupting their night.
Zulip has lengthy provided the choice to
mute streams to keep away from receiving
notifications for messages you aren’t occupied with. Now you can
unmute a topic
inside a stream you’ve got muted. This makes it handy to concentrate to
discussions you care about in a stream you often don’t watch intently.
We’ve
streamlined the way you
change the recipients
for a message you’re composing. Now you can select a stream from a handy
picker, and even swap between composing a stream message and a direct
message with out closing the compose field.
Now you can
configure
whether or not Zulip will mechanically mark messages as learn while you view them. For
instance, with the configuration that mechanically marks messages as learn solely
in dialog views, you possibly can skim
All messages whereas leaving all of your
messages marked as unread, to later undergo them
one conversation at a time.
For full management, you possibly can set Zulip to solely mark messages as learn manually.

New keyboard shortcuts

Zulip is designed to be simply as simple to navigate with its ergonomic
keyboard shortcuts as it’s with
the mouse.

This launch provides a brand new shortcut (z) that permits you to zoom to a message within the
context of its dialog. For instance, you should utilize z to leap to the complete
context for a search end result.
The s shortcut now takes you on to the dialog the chosen
message was despatched to. If you’re already there, it navigates you to the view
exhibiting the complete stream. This removes the necessity to keep in mind separate
Shift + s and s shortcuts for these actions.
Along with the present + shortcut for reacting to a message with ???? ,
now you can use = to toggle the primary emoji response on a message. For
instance, = will add your ???? to the message under.

The permissions settings for
moving messages have
been redesigned for readability and adaptability. Now you can
configure who can transfer
messages, and for a way lengthy, independently from message enhancing permissions.
To make it simpler to handle customers, now you can open a
user card by clicking on the consumer’s title
within the settings and stream subscriber menus.
Compliance exports
now have added flexibility. You may select between JSON and CSV codecs, and
there are new choices to filter by message recipient, and to specify whether or not
attachments ought to be included within the export.
Along with configuring who can add subscribers to a stream, now you can
configure permissions
for eradicating different customers as effectively.

Higher new-user expertise

To raised match terminology acquainted from different apps, “personal messages” have
been renamed to “direct messages” throughout the Zulip app, together with up to date
search filters.
The help center now consists of documentation for a way
to finish many frequent duties within the Zulip cellular apps. Many different
directions have additionally been up to date for readability and completeness.
To make getting began with Zulip as easy as doable, now we have rewritten
the e-mail that introduces customers to
streams and topics, and added an
e mail linking to guides for every
kind of group. Additionally, the contact data supplied in emails now
makes clear to customers in self-hosted organizations that they’re reaching out to
their Zulip server directors, and never the Zulip crew.

Extra consumer expertise enhancements

A brand new privateness possibility enables you to
configure who can see the
e mail handle you employ to log into Zulip. Your private configuration overrides
the default set by group directors. For instance, maintainers of an
open-source venture can now simply share their emails with one another, whereas
retaining the emails of different group members personal by default.
To make the expertise of catching up in your messages extra handy, the
left sidebar now exhibits extra
direct message conversations, and extra
topics within the chosen stream.
To assist keep away from errors, there at the moment are extra affirmation dialogs for
actions deserving warning, together with
marking all messages as read,
eradicating the final consumer from a personal stream, and disabling all notifications
for direct messages.

Integrations

We have now added a local webhook integration for
Rundeck.
The GitHub integration has been
improved to obviously talk related data throughout occasion varieties, for
instance by avoiding repeating the complete pull request description in sure
occasions.
This launch provides assist for
JWT authentication,
enabling deep integrations with different functions that must entry the
Zulip API on behalf of customers.
Zulip’s SAML integration now helps application-initiated
SAML Single Logout,
along with the present identity-provider-initiated SAML Single Logout.

Server

This launch provides assist for the upcoming
Debian 12 launch.
Zulip
now supports PostgreSQL 15
because the database. This launch additionally removes assist for PostgreSQL 11 on account of
its approaching end-of-life.
For servers that use the
S3 file storage
configuration, information at the moment are downloaded to the server, cached, and served to
purchasers from there, as an alternative of purchasers fetching them immediately from S3
themselves. This will increase bandwidth necessities for the Zulip server, however
tremendously reduces the bandwidth necessities for Zulip purchasers by permitting them
to cache the information appropriately.
Entrance-end JavaScript error reporting has been rewritten to make use of
Sentry,
which supplies a lot better assist for aggregating and filtering client-side
exceptions than the earlier customized system.
Directors can add
configurable hooks
that are run when upgrading the Zulip server — for instance, sending a Zulip
message describing the newly-deployed commits.
This launch upgrades many third-party dependencies, together with to
Django 4.2 LTS.

Internationalization

Our group translators have been exhausting at work maintaining with the product
because it evolves. This launch incorporates a whole of 27 languages with translations
that cowl the vast majority of non-error strings.
This launch fixes a number of points involving incorrect internationalization of
dates and occasions, in addition to a problem the place some strings in e mail notifications
weren’t translated appropriately.

We
highly recommend
upgrading to Zulip Server 7.0 to reap the benefits of the tons of of enhancements
on this launch. If you happen to’re utilizing Zulip Cloud, you have already got the brand new model,
as we always improve it with enhancements as they change into prepared.

We work exhausting to make sure that upgrades are easy; you possibly can improve by following
the easy
upgrade instructions.
The
upgrade notes section of the changelog
particulars adjustments you’ll wish to perceive earlier than upgrading.

Many installations have already upgraded to launch candidates, so we really feel very
assured on this launch. However if you happen to need assistance, best-effort assist is
obtainable on chat.zulip.org. You may
additionally buy commercial support from the Zulip core
crew.

This launch options many enhancements within the design of the Zulip internet app, and
redesign efforts will proceed to be a significant precedence within the coming months.
Try
issues tagged with the “redesign” label
to see the place we’re headed, and
join the conversations
within the Zulip growth group to supply suggestions.

We’re additionally engaged on options that may make communication much more environment friendly
with Zulip, together with making it doable to
follow a topic of curiosity, and
bringing the Inbox view that mobile-app customers
are conversant in
to the Zulip web app.

Launch schedule

This launch is popping out about six months after the Zulip Server 6.0 launch
in November 2022, which
we expect is a greater cadence in comparison with the eight-month hole between Zulip 5.0
and Zulip 6.0. We’re focusing on roughly the identical six-month interval for the following
main launch, which is predicted in direction of the tip of the 12 months.

I’d prefer to take this chance to promote a couple of alternatives to contribute
to Zulip:

Suggestions from our customers is a key a part of how we enhance the product and
prioritize what options to construct. If you happen to use Zulip, we might actually
recognize a couple of minutes of your time to fill out
this survey to share your concepts. You
also can come by for a chat within the
development community the place we
design Zulip.
We love working with customers to
share their stories — contact
us at support@zulip.com if you’re !
Overview Zulip on product comparability web sites, resembling
G2 or
Software Advice. Sharing your
expertise with Zulip (good or unhealthy) helps others determine whether or not Zulip is the
proper software for them.
Assist Zulip financially on
GitHub Sponsors,
Patreon, or
Open Collective.
Check out extra
ways to help out. 🙂

Thanks once more to the superb international Zulip growth group for making this
doable!

—Tim Abbott, Zulip venture chief

What follows is a abstract of the commits contributed to Zulip in the course of the 7.0
launch cycle.

$ ./instruments/total-contributions 6.0 7.0
483	Chris Bobbe
403	Greg Value
364	Alex Vandiver
343	Anders Kaseorg
292	Sahil Batra
232	Aman Agrawal
212	neiljp (Neil Pilgrim)
204	Lauryn Menard
171	Tim Abbott
87	Evy Kassirer
84	David Rosa
82	Alya Abbott
69	Karl Stolley
69	Mateusz Mandera
65	Hardik Dharmani
53	Joseph Ho
51	Daniil Fadeev
51	Satyam Bansal
48	Lalit Kumar Singh
48	Zixuan James Li
46	Prakhar Pratyush
45	N-Shar-ma
41	Palash Baderia
29	Josh Klar
24	Ujjawal Modi
18	Sayam Samal
14	m-e-l-u-h-a-n
14	Israel Galadima
13	Abhijeet Prasad Bodas
12	AcKindle3
12	Danny Su
12	SameepAher
11	Brijmohan Siyag
10	Lakshay Mittal
9	Akarsh Jain
9	Sahil Singh
8	Vishwesh Pillai
6	rht
5	Ganesh Pawar
4	Adarsh Tiwari
4	Hemant Umre
4	Joseph Hughes
4	Julia Bichler
4	Kartik Srivastava
4	Akash Dhiman
3	Josh Yap
3	Sebastian Noack
3	Progyan
2	Anna Larsson
2	Deekshith S Shetty
2	Duncan
2	Ishita Gupta
2	Manas Jayaswal
2	Ningxi Zhang
2	Pranav2612000
2	Rohitt Vashishtha
2	Steve Gattuso
2	Steve Howell
2	Yash RE
2	alik-balika
2	aparna-bhatt
2	nzai
2	Brandon Ngoran Ntam
2	AUX
2	i-ky
2	Sushmey
1	Alessandro Toppi
1	Clara Gallon
1	Dhruv Gupta
1	Elizabeth Funk
1	Haridarshan Choudhary
1	Ilikepizza2
1	Ishaan Singh
1	Josiah Kievit
1	Pranav Joglekar
1	Prashant Vithani
1	Praveen Kumar
1	Rebeca Carvalho
1	Rein Zustand (rht)
1	Riken Shah
1	Rixant Rokaha
1	Ruchir Harbhajanka
1	Tanmay Munjal
1	Toyam Cox
1	Tran Sang
1	Ujjwal Aggarwal
1	Yuri Sulyma
1	atharmohammad
1	khadeom
1	mustafa0x
1	oribe1115
1	petercabra
1	Eli Zevin
1	Sam Wight
1	fwcd
1	Adarsh PK
1	Lorenzo Milesi
1	Matt Keller
1	maltokyo
1	Aarav Arora
1	AmeliaTaihui
1	Kelp710
1	Rohitth
1	Subhasish-Behera
1	Wladimir Ramos
1	Pranas Ziaukas
1	Eric Wieser
Commit vary 6.0..7.0 corresponds to 2022-11-17 to 2023-05-31
2610 commits from zulip/zulip: 6.0..7.0
515 commits from zulip/zulip-mobile: 2fd106158055..c979530d6804
370 commits from zulip/zulip-flutter: (begin)..21cca5bbc580
246 commits from zulip/zulip-terminal: 3c7a66022a37..bef2a8fb7e12
64 commits from zulip/zulip-desktop: 544d23ec09c0..7fba8cfae92d
30 commits from zulip/github-actions-zulip: f8e411e710f5..b62d5a0e48a4
24 commits from zulip/docker-zulip: 65f33b502fec..72828ae07693
7 commits from zulip/python-zulip-api: 4a3d225a3863..5b2b0617a6c5
7 commits from zulip/zulip-archive: 86efe95a5901..be1c1661ba4a
2 commits from zulip/zulipbot: 18a0a5bfcef6..d0bee679bf3c
Excluded 16 commits authored by bots.
3859 whole commits by 107 contributors between 6.0 and seven.0.