6 ms·
Show HN: Zube 1.0 – Powerful project management for GitHub Issues
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoHi! I’m Jen, cofounder of Zube and we’re thrilled to announce Zube 1.0 today. Zube 1.0 is much more powerful than our beta version. We’ve added Zube Tickets, which lets you create tickets that track groups of related GitHub issues. Think ZenDesk for Github. We’ve also added an issue manager, which is the fastest way to find and triage your issues on any platform. And there have been many improvements to our scrum/kanban board like a new pull request section and burndown charts. We’d love to hear what you think of Zube 1.0 and I’m happy to answer any questions you have in the comments here!
- bernardjhuang 11y agoHi Jen - is Zube 1.0 for people in the company who are not developers?
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoYes! We made Zube Tickets so support teams and non-technical people have a place to report problems/questions. The cool thing about Zube Tickets is that they automatically track what the development team is working on and notify you when things get done. This makes it easy to know what's going on without having to understand the technical details of every GitHub issue!
- cpr 11y agoSound intriguing! Where can we find out more about Zube Tickes? Not mentioned in the simple doc page.
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoYea, our docs are a little short when it comes to Tickets. :) We'll work on getting that updated but in the meantime you can check out this blog post - https://zube.io/blog/introducing-a-ticketing-system-for-your-github-issues/ https://zube.io/blog/introducing-a-ticketing-system-for-your...
- kawsper 11y agoCan I add non-technical people to Zube, without giving them access to repos on Github?
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoAt the moment, you need at least read access to the repo to use Zube but we're working on allowing email only login for non-technical people to use tickets and view the Zube board. We're aiming to have that out in a few weeks.
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- kvark 11y agoHow does it compare to Waffle.io?
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoZube and Waffle are similar in the sense that we both allow developers to better organize their GitHub issues on a kanban board. The main difference between Waffle and Zube is that Zube provides many features that Waffle lacks. Zube lets team leads easily triage incoming issues with a powerful issue manager. Zube allows GitHub issues to be grouped together into a single ticket, and automatically tracks the progress of the underlying issues. Zube has story points and burndown charts. And Zube’s GitHub integration allows you to fully manage your issues, labels, and milestones, whereas Waffle’s less complete integration does not. So I guess you could say that Waffle is a simple way to visualize your GitHub issues and Zube is a project management platform for your GitHub issues.
- kvark 11y agoThank you for the extensive explanation! We'll give it a try ;)
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoAwesome! We'd love to know what you think!
- zbuttram 11y ago>> Zube’s GitHub integration allows you to fully manage your issues, labels, and milestones, whereas Waffle’s less complete integration does not. Meaning labels and milestones can be created from Zube instead of being limited to just applying already existing labels and milestones like Waffle? Can multiple repos be combined into a single board like Waffle?
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoYep, you can create, edit and delete labels and milestones from Zube. We're working on adding multiple repos to Zube boards and should have that feature out in a couple of weeks.
- xGrill 11y agoHey Jen, Congrats on 1.0. Our development team uses a micro service architecture that has 1 project spread across multiple repos, and I think the biggest problem with most project management software with extensive Github integration is that they are on a per repo basis. We can never get a holistic view of our entire application without duplicating work into another Project Management platform. Is there anything inside Zube that would alleviate this? How does Zube handle multiple repos for teams?
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoWe're working on implementing multiple repos on one board right now and will have that feature out in a couple of weeks. Are you looking for adding several repos to one board or do you need a board that displays issues from one or more repos as well as non-issue backed tasks?
- xGrill 11y agoJust one board with all the issues from multiple repos would be great! I think keeping non-issue backed tasks seperate makes sense.
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoSounds good! Yes, I agree that the board should really only be for issues.
- lisivka 11y agoJust one board for all projects _per organization_, please. I want to keep separate boards for my private projects, but one board for all backend related projects (backend-, aports-) in another organization.
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoCool! That's how we're implementing it.
- stephenitis 11y agoCongrats Jen! I remember when you showed me this in it's early stages at Heavybit. It's really come a long ways with features and polish!
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoThanks for the kind words Stephen! We've come a long way since that rickety demo :)
- emehrkay 11y agoIs Zube a direct result of your 180 days of coding exercise (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6097155 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6097155) that you did a while back? If so, amazing. Very inspiring
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoThanks! The idea for Zube came from my and my cofounder's (shout out to @204NoContent!) experiences working on dev teams at our previous jobs at early stage startups. We built the tool we wished we had :) The 180 Websites project is definitely a part of what led me to be a technical cofounder. It certainly helped me learn how to ship code and iterate!
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- deleted 11y ago[deleted]
- lihorne 11y agoWe've been using Zube for several months now and are really impressed with how fast the team has turned this into such a powerful platform. We quickly switched from ZenHub to Zube because of how fast and easy it was to prioritize issues and manage dev sprints (using milestones).
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoThanks for the kind words! Glad to hear Zube is working for you! :D
- kmfrk 11y agoThis looks really awesome, best implementation of this I've seen by far Personally, I'm really excited about this, but I also imagine a lot of companies might use BitBucket for its free private repos. The only think I kinda wish for is a way to see an overview across all repos. The GitHub issues dashboard is so awful that I wish someone could take over that job.
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoThanks for the kind words! We started with GitHub because that's what we know and love but down the road we'd love to add more integrations like BitBucket. Multiple repo views is a great suggestion. We're working on it now and we will have it out in a few weeks!
- quaunaut 11y agoHow does Zube do in terms of performance when loading up? One of my biggest issues with Waffle or Zenhub is that loading them up is often a long wait- Zenhub can be 3-4 seconds(and often is just incorrect in labels/assignments), and Waffle could be upwards of 15 seconds. Does this do any caching on Zube's side and then real-time update it as it goes, or am I in for a long wait again regardless?
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoGreat question. We built Zube is speed in mind even for repos with hundreds of open issues. If you have over 1000 open issues you'll probably notice a lag on any platform and it will take about 2 seconds on Zube. We're obsessed with speed and we'd be happy to work with you to make things fast!
- Kpourdeilami 11y agoAny plans for Gitlab support?
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoWe are definitely interested in adding GitLab support as well as other integrations though I'm not sure when we'll get there.
- jobvandervoort 11y agoGood to hear! Let me know if you have any questions, we're happy to help.
- jasonshen 11y agoReally big fan of this approach - link the work up with the thing tracking the work as closely as possible. At Etsy we use Github and JIRA separately and I personally think it'd save time and reduce confusion if we were to move to something like Zube. Nice job Jen!
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoThanks Jason! That is exactly where the idea for Zube came from! Trying to keep two (or more!) data sources in sync is error prone and just generates extra work for everyone. We made Zube to combat that problem.
- alexwebb2 11y agoEstimation is a killer feature missing from Github Issues, and it looks like you've got a points estimation feature, which is great. Any plans to add hour-based estimation?
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoThat's a great idea and would be pretty quick to add. Would having either points or hours for a repository work for you?
- lisivka 11y agoIf in hours, then implement it as combobox with predefined list of standard estimates (1h, 2h, 4h, 1d, 2d, 3d, 1w, 2w, 3w, 1m, 2m, 3m, 6m, 1y).
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoGot it! That makes sense, thanks for the breakdown.
- alexwebb2 11y agoYeah, that'd be fantastic!
- kwiens 11y agoIt's critical to have point estimates available in Github. Zenhub, Codetree, Waffle, and others are moving to sync issue point estimation with integer labels in Github. We heavily use `1`, `2`, etc. labels in Github and have built a lot of tooling on top of their API. We'd love to use Zube, but you either need to use Github as the data source for point estimates or build a comprehensive API.
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoInteresting. Maybe we could make an app setting that would save points as labels. Thanks for suggesting it! And we will release a public API :) You can already see much of the functionality in Zube's Issue Manager.
- philschatz 11y agoOh nice! I like the ability to assign Issues by just dragging to a user and the "Batch Editing" UI is pretty concise! Also, being able to create an Issue without having a GitHub login seems helpful to get non-developers communicating. I'm a developer that grew frustrated with so many ticket tracking solutions that force users to use the UI (Waffle and ZenHub store metadata that is not in GitHub), a lack of hackable options, and making it difficult for non-members to be involved in what's going on in a project. So, I created https://github.com/philschatz/gh-board https://github.com/philschatz/gh-board . Some features I haven't seen anywhere else, that gh-board does are: - real-time collaborative editing of Issues - showing related Issues/PR's - shareable URL's (for remote folks) - sequence diagrams, gantt charts, etc - CI and merge conflict status - "deployable" anywhere (using gh-pages or nginx) Like other solutions, it also supports multiple repositories, Drag-N-Drop, milestone planning. In the _very near_ future it will have a burndown chart, batch editing, Issue creation, and load faster (using IndexedDB).
- nathanstitt 11y agoI've used gh-board before and really like the ability to "merge repos" You can view all the PR's across multiple organizations and repositories, which makes it very handy for someone who's a member of multiple projects. Plus it's open-source!
- lemming 11y agoThis looks really nice - thanks!
- mbym 11y agoOh, this is really cool. So when I create a "card" on zube, it automatically creates an issue on github. And when I drag the card to "done" on your trello-like board, it marks the issue as closed in github. The zube interface definitely adds a lot of clarity with colours and birds-eye view. I'm excited to use this! I think the onboarding could make it easier to quickly understand this much (initially, I falsely assumed a "ticket" corresponded to one github issue). I just pushed to github with a commit message that closed the issue, (git commit -m "... closes #1", as per https://help.github.com/articles/closing-issues-via-commit-messages/ https://help.github.com/articles/closing-issues-via-commit-m...) and sure enough, the "card" is now marked as complete in zube, with a handy hyperlink to the corresponding commit in github. The instant email confirmation ("Ticket #n closed") from Zube could be pretty handy too, as the team grows. Nice work!
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoThanks for signing up! We definitely have some work to do with the on boarding flow and documentation, especially around Tickets. Glad to hear you were able to figure it out! :) A Ticket is a place where you can link together multiple GitHub Issues that doesn't sync with GitHub itself. The Ticket tracks the status of those issues and updates it's status as the issues are worked on. This works great for bug reports that need multiple tasks completed in order to be resolved, for example.
- bossx 11y agoIs this an extension or a standalone web app?
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoZube's a stand alone web app. Your Zube cards are two-way synced in real-time via the GitHub API.
- ThePhysicist 11y agoVery nice tool, looks really polished and very functional! A while ago I also built an open-source Kanban board for Github issues using React.js and Material Design: https://adewes.github.io/gitboard https://adewes.github.io/gitboard Unlike Zube and other tools (e.g. Huboard) you can use Gitboard without giving anyone else acccess to your Github repositories, i.e. it runs completely client-side within your browser and without an intermediate server between you and Github. Currently it has much less features than Zube though. It uses the Github API via AJAX and stores your login credentials in the session storage of the browser. Here's the Github repository: https://github.com/adewes/gitboard https://github.com/adewes/gitboard
- jmtulloss 11y agoAwesome work! I love how simple it is while still adding so much. I know you've mentioned this elsewhere, but I was a bit confused by the tickets. I get what they are, but who is the intended user? One feature I'd like to see is custom statuses. I personally am a big fan of "In progress -> Pending deploy -> Verify -> Done" instead of just "Done". It makes it really clear what just went out with every deploy, and allows the person who originally filed the issue to be the final arbiter on whether or not it was actually solved. Another cool things would be integrations! If you have a ticketing system, it would be great if that tied into the tools that the customer support teams use. I use intercom myself, and it'd be handy if I could create a ticket out of an intercom request and remember to follow up with that user after the fix is deployed.
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoThanks! We created tickets with non-technical people in mind as way they could report bugs, feature requests and the like without cluttering up issues for developers. Since the tickets track the work on their linked issues, the ticket owner has a clear picture of what the progress is on their ticket. However, we've also seen dev teams hack tickets as a way to scope groups of issues together, for a feature release for example, similar to epics in Agile workflows. Would you like to see custom statuses on board, the tickets or both? We are really excited to add more integrations! Slack, ZenDesk and Intercom are some of the big ones we're looking at.
- jmtulloss 11y agoOh I was thinking of the board, not tickets. But perhaps it's more relevant in tickets? I'm not sure, just an idea. Years ago I worked at a company that had a jira flow that worked with those stages for tickets and I thought it was great. Haven't been able to replicate that workflow since.
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoGotchya! We've been thinking about how to add some flexibility to the columns without falling into the 'endless column' trap where teams end up with dozens of micromanaged columns. It sounds like that level of organization would still fit the paradigm.
- mrmondo 11y agoHey, any plans for Gitlab support?
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoWe'd really like to add other integrations like GitLab. We do have a bit of work to do on our core product first so it may take a little while before we get there.
- nzoschke 11y agoThis is great. Trying to keep project management synced between Trello and GitHub is busywork. GitHub is a major source of truth for a project, so tools that manage it are really great. I'll be giving Zube a spin.
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoAwesome! Let me know if you have any questions. I'm happy to help!
- x0ner 11y agoThis looks really cool and is something I would love to check out, but the permissions of the actual app seem pretty high. For us, our code is stored in a private repository with no plan for any public release. Permissions for Zube are asking to not only read the private repository code, but also have write access to them as well. There's also requests to read/write web service hooks, deploy keys and pull requests. Is this a byproduct of Github's design or does the app really need all of these permissions to function properly?
- jenniferDewalt 11y agoWe totally understand your concerns and we take security very seriously. In order to manage GitHub issues, GitHub currently requires the repo scope. If there was a more restrictive scope just for GitHub Issues, Zube would use that one instead, but there isn't. Zube requires the same permissions as many other applications, the same permissions as Slack, for example. On our side, Zube only accesses data related to your GitHub issues and never touches your code at all. All of the calls Zube makes to the GitHub API are whitelisted (on our end) to ensure that Zube only accesses the data it needs. For extra security, we also encrypt your auth token before storing it. It’s also important to note that your auth token is specific to Zube and at any time you can revoke your token on GItHub.