

Show HN: Supercharge GitHub with ZenHub - rohamg
http://zenhub.io/

======
rohamg
Thanks so much for all the love, HN! I'll do my best to address everyones'
questions in one post:

1) Cross-platform support: ZenHub for Firefox, Safari, and mobile is _coming
soon_ \- how soon depends on how much our current user-base wants more
platform support vs big features we have spec'd out. No worries here :)

2) GitHub API rate limit: GitHub has worked with us to lift the API request
rate limit for users that need it, we're also limiting the GitHub API calls we
do have to make with caching systems and other tactics, for eg disabling
polling when you're not looking at the board. TLDR: we have no worries here
either.

3) Major GitHub UI updates: these do have the potential to break some
functionality, but our major feature (the Boards) is pretty robust. Also,
we're really fast and can react to GitHub's changes within minutes if not
hours. We're now working with GitHub to get a heads up on changes that may
affect our product, so again - no worries.

4) Transitioning from Huboard / other tools: should be painless: you can even
use both products in parallel during the transition period and pick the one
you like best (hint: it'll be ours!)

5) Errors with our homepage (zenhub.io): we're fixing issues as quick as they
pop up, bear with us :)

6) Other comments or requests: please vote on feature requests by creating new
Issues or +1'ing existing Issues on our public GitHub support repo:
[https://github.com/zenhubio/support/issues](https://github.com/zenhubio/support/issues)

~~~
Khao
Great reply, thanks for taking the time to address all the questions being
raised in the thread!

------
earless1
Wow, this seems like a cool product. I can't imagine building a product that
relies so heavily on the UI of another service. How are updates handled?

~~~
gingerlime
That's exactly my concern. I'm currently considering between waffle.io and
huboard - and in general it seems to me safer that they use github's API,
compared to Zenhub, which (is this the right expression?) 'monkey-patches' the
front-end.

Being only usable in Chrome is also a disadvantage of zenhub in my opinion.

~~~
neilk
Zenhub uses the API, they just patch a few new things into Github's web pages.
It doesn't seem that fragile to me.

~~~
Flenser
It could stop being able to insert content into the page if the structure
changed. If they're smart they'll have tests that periodically check it still
works and alert them if it doesn't. If they're smarter they'll have it work
out where on the page the target has moved to and update the extension
automatically with a fix if it can find one.

~~~
FootballMuse
Not to mention Github uses feature toggling. So even users of the same team
can have different versions of the UI, but almost certainly across the entire
user base.

------
EduardoBautista
If only it could work on browsers that aren't Chrome...

------
conradk
For me, that page is lagging like crazy (although other tabs work fine). Also,
this is another good example of a headline that doesn't state anything about
what the product actually does.

Going further down the page does make it more clear though.

------
jader201
Just some honest feedback regarding pricing.

I think this looks really cool, and may give it a spin. However, not sure I
can justify the charge for my team. I currently pay $25 for a Bronze GitHub
Organization plan [1], and while I'm the main developer for the site, I do
have a team of volunteers that contribute to the source whenever they can,
about 10-15 of us total.

So I would be looking at $50-$75 for an extension to a product I'm only paying
$25 for at the moment. Just seems a little imbalanced.

Of course, I realize I'm an edge case, as most teams of this size will be paid
team members in an established startup or company, but it still seems even
these companies may find it odd to pay more for an extension vs. what they
might pay for the base product.

Why not base your tiers similar to GitHub, charging by the number of repos
instead of the number of users?

[1] [https://github.com/pricing](https://github.com/pricing)

~~~
rohamg
Thanks very much for the note. I see where you're coming from, but keep in
mind our pricing drops to $3.75/user at higher volumes - quite affordable
compared to the products we replace.

Please do take ZenHub.io for a spin and, if you _love_ it, shoot me an email:
r[at]ze.nr - we can talk about your team's needs and find a win/win.

------
felixrabe
Heh, love the +1 button!

[https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/735#issuecomment-576...](https://github.com/docker/docker/issues/735#issuecomment-57682691)

------
Khao
Whenever I click on any link in the top navigation menu I get a javascript
error in Chrome :

Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'top' of undefined

~~~
EduardoBautista
Clicking anywhere causes an error in Safari.

------
Revell
How do (web)apps like this cope with the API request limiting? I can't imagine
a client being OK with the app not working after 5000reqs.

~~~
troydavis
Two ways:

1\. API limits are usually per user (OAuth token, API token), not per API
consumer. 5000 per user is a lot. The exceptions are ancient APIs, actually
want to constrain usage, or didn't think about how their API would be
consumed.

2\. Honor cache headers and, headers or not, know the data well enough to
cache thoughtfully.

We consume 40+ APIs for [https://tacoapp.com/](https://tacoapp.com/) and even
with a full day as #1 on ProductHunt, the only APIs we had to worry about were
those tied to the consuming app instead of to the user (API token) or
user+consuming app (OAuth token).

Basically, if you build an API, base limits on the number of users a consuming
app is acting on behalf.

~~~
jeffandersen
Another big way to reduce impact on your rate-limit (at least with Github) is
conditional requests.

If-None-Match / If-Modified-Since and using the E-Tag header.

If the resources have not been modified, or doesn't match that revision it
won't count towards your limit.

------
joshfinnie
We have been using ZenHub for quite a while and have to say that it has been a
great change from Trello. As a developer, I was already in Github all the
time, so adding the pipeline process within Github is awesome.

It hasn't been without it's issues, but I would highly recommend trying it
out.

------
rglover
This is rad, however, echoing others it does seem a bit risky to trust that
Github won't swap out. For stuff like boards, it'd be nice to have an option
sync with Trello. Worst case scenario all of the data is there and usable
without a lot of fuss.

~~~
rohamg
Keep in mind that almost everything in ZenHub is built directly on core GitHub
features which are not going anywhere (Issues, Pull Requests, etc) - the files
are hosted on S3.

That said, Trello sync is an interesting idea. Taking a look at Trello
integration is somewhere on our list, mostly to set up a Trello-to-ZenHub
importer but sync would be a nice side-effect. Thanks for the feedback!

------
repple
We already use huboard. It would be nice if this transition from huboard to
ZenHub was more seamless. For now, I'm told that I need to create another
board and I'm not entirely sure how this will affect our huboard setup..

------
chibicode
I wrote how we use ZenHub at our startup here:
[http://devblog.edsurge.com/scrum-kanban-trello-github-
issues...](http://devblog.edsurge.com/scrum-kanban-trello-github-issues/)

------
pradn
When I hit the pricing button on Chrome, it doesn't take me anywhere.

------
alexeyza
Been using it for a while now, and it is awesome. I wish the +1 button was
part of the regular GitHub (so that non-ZenHub users could see my +1).

------
sandGorgon
Looks awesome !

If you could do Bitbucket, that would be awesome (considering Bitbucket
already has native Hipchat, Jira, etc.)

------
mechazawa
I love it when websites don't work when I have analytic/ad blockers enabled.

------
oyanglulu
looks like fancy but chrome only version of
[https://github.com/jcouyang/gira](https://github.com/jcouyang/gira)

~~~
adzuci
oyanglulu,

    
    
      Do you use gira, at first glance it like it only works on public repos?  It looks like an acceptable but rather thrown together alternative to both Huboard and Zenhub.  
    

(Background: we used Huboard, but essentially have too many issues for it to
handle & I'm curious what other workflows people use and if Zenhub could
handle what Huboard can't.)

------
unclesaamm
I fucking hate the use of "Zen" in everything. Why not call it JesusHub?

~~~
mck-
jesushub is taken: [http://jesushub.org/](http://jesushub.org/)

btw, you're making the analogy as if "Zen" were a religion – it is not

~~~
unclesaamm
Thanks for the link. And "Jesus" isn't a religion either. They're both words
that are commonly associated with religions--Christianity and Buddhism.

Startups using the word Zen are just creepy in a cultural appropriation kind
of way. It's like "I Can't Become a Buddhist", by Adrienne Su:

because I grew up vaguely Methodist

and most of the Buddhists

I know are men who turned Buddhist

.

after finding the religion

in a prepubescent

girl serving prawns and chicken

.

in coconut milk, steamed sticky rice,

papayas, and a massage for the price

of a subway token. Because they drive

.

cars bearing FREE TIBET bumper stickers

but would let their neighbors wither

and starve. Because they slither

.

up and down the supermarket aisles

waiting for the chance to ask girls

like me Where are you really from? while

.

stocking up on mung beans and swelling

with the memory of that excellent

backrub in the hands of a thirteen-

.

year-old goddess who's probably dying

or dead or working for Nike at a dime

a sneaker. Because their renouncing

.

is pointed, because all they ever wanted

was to be different and Buddhism planted

the seed of a new Me in a stunted

.

self-image. Because they insist on roaming

the city in off-white robes, deflecting

the sun's hot gaze, saffron being

.

too conspicuous and white being too damned

unprofound and likely to be sandwiched

between red and blue in a crowd of Americans.

[http://www.poetrynet.org/month/archive/su/buddhist.html](http://www.poetrynet.org/month/archive/su/buddhist.html)

