Apache Hop is a Top-Level Project!

Incubator - the Apache Way and Community 

Just before the end of 2021, Apache Hop graduated from the Apache Incubator and is now a Top-Level Project. 

As described when Hop joined the Apache Software Foundation, new ASF projects go through an incubating period at the Incubator. Incubating projects, or podlings, have a couple of responsibilities.

First of all, the project team needs to learn to work "The Apache Way". This includes clear, open and inclusive communication, and lots of discussions on the various mailing lists. In the incubator, projects need to create at least one software release. Hop did 4 (0.60, 0.70, 0.99, 1.0). These software releases obviously need to comply to the high standards of copyright and license compatibility for all of the dependencies used in the software. 

Find out more about Apache Hop by downloading our free fact sheet

In addition to building software and working The Apache Way, projects are expected to grow and foster a community. When Hop started in the summer of 2019, there were three developers and a couple of interested people. 2.5 years later, the Hop community has hundreds of participants on the chat, and hundreds of followers on all social media accounts. 

Building great software is the first task for a project like Apache Hop. However, great communities build great software. The community is what drives  Hop forward, and we at know.bi are proud to be a part of it. 

Graduating as a Top-Level Project means the Apache Software Foundation considers Hop to be a mature project, in terms of software and community! 

What does the graduation mean for Hop?

Formalities first: with the graduation, the Hop community formally transfers ownership of all of the code and artifacts to the Apache Software Foundation. Hop now really is available in the public domain. 

Graduation is the point where a lot of organizations start to take projects serious. Many organizations have already been following Hop and have been experimenting with the software. With this graduation, a lot of organization will consider Hop mature enough to run it in production. We expect Hop's adoption to skyrocket in the coming months. 

The importance of the community doesn't decrease or stop now that Hop left the Incubator, au contraire! An increased adoption of the Hop platform will mean more community members who try and use Hop. Some of these community members will become active contributors by providing bug tickets, participating in discussions, contributing code etc. An increased Hop adoption will lead to community growth. We expect the Hop community to grow significantly in the coming months. 

A growing adoption and community will lead to more development, more bug hunting and fixing, and a growing platform overall. We expect the Hop functionality to grow significantly in the coming months. 

In the meantime, the Hop project team hasn't been sitting on their hands. The Hop 1.1.0 release is around the corner, and work on Hop 1.2.0 already started. A Hop 2.0 branch was started in the background to prepare for an upgrade to Java 11. 

Apache Hop and know.bi

know.bi was involved with Apache Hop from the cradle, we've been active contributors and will continue to contribute. 

Know.bi will increasingly focus on building rock-solid solutions that take care of the hard technical problems so you can focus on adding value for your business. Hop will be an important tool on our belt going forward. Hop enables us to develop fast but profoundly, to integrate with any component in your architecture, and to manage your projects throughout their entire life cycle. 

While we focus on building solutions, our partner Lean With Data has your back if you need support to run Hop in a production environment. Since decent support requires a lot more than creating bug tickets, Lean With Data focuses on helping organizations to build solutions according to best practices, and trains, coaches customers along the way.