Apache Hop 1.2.0 released
info: this post was originally shared on the Lean With Data blog.
The Apache Hop community PMC and community recently released Apache Hop 1.2.0. This release contains various improvements and bug fixes, and is the last stop before Hop 2.0.
Hop 1.2.0 is not just a bug fixing release. The Hop team worked on close to 90 tickets since the release of Apache Hop 1.1.0 earlier this year.
Hop Gui
Hop Gui was developed from scratch since the start of the Apache Hop project in 2019 and has come a long way since then. Hop Gui grew from a user interface to develop workflows and pipelines to a full IDE for visual development.
A couple of changes in 1.2.0 stand out, in addition to the numerous bugs fixes:
- Hop Gui remembers your last selected environment for a project and your last run level. Small changes like these make data engineers even more productive in Hop Gui.
- Hop Gui now uses the operating system look and feel by default. Windows users will have an improved dark mode.
- Hop 1.2.0 now comes with a Hop icon that can be used for your Hop Gui and other Hop tool launchers.
Neo4j
No data engineering or data orchestration platform supports Neo4j like Apache Hop does, and the gap only continues to widen.
The Neo4j Import transform that lets data engineers import CSV files into Neo4j now has improved internationalization and metadata injection support.
The Neo4j Graph Output transform allows loading data directly to Neo4j from a pre-defined model (defined in Hop Gui or imported from a tool like Arrows). The Graph Output now supports creating labels based on a key/value pair defined in earlier pipeline transforms.
Finally, the Neo4j connection dialog has been cleaned up and simplified. The Neo4j java driver now detects settings like encryption, routing and certification trusts. The options are now detected by default but can still be set manually through the advanced options.
Apache Kafka and Apache Avro
Hop 1.2.0 comes with a new Avro encoding transform that lets you combine a number of fields into an Avro record.
This ability to work with Avro is now available in the Apache Kafka producer and consumer transforms. This includes the possibility to work with a (Confluent) Avro Schema registry.
The Apache Kafak producer transform joins the consumer transform in being able to talk to security-enabled clusters like Confluent Cloud.
Various
In addition to tens of bug fixes, a couple of additional improvements deserve an honorable mention:
- improved translations in Chinese and Brazilian Portuguese
- the Hop Translator usability was improved to make translating Hop into your own native language even easier
- the Docker container images now detect if a project already exists
- the Docker container images are now available for the ARM architecture
Community
The Apache Hop community continues to grow. The number of users across the various channels grew by between 5% and 10% since Hop 1.1.0, getting close to 1000 followers on LinkedIn and Twitter.
Community activity continues to grow as well, with new committers joining regularly and a steady inflow of contributions in various forms and shapes.
What’s next?
Hop 1.2.0 is the last release in the 1.x series. The Hop community is already working on Hop 2.0, which will feature the switch to Java 11. Because of the dependency on Apache Beam as one of the major plugins, Hop stayed with Java 8 until Beam moved to Java 11.
The Apache Hop code and integration tests have been upgraded to Java 11 a couple of months ago, and development for the Hop 2.0 release is well underway.
Apache Hop and Lean With Data
Lean With Data actively develops and supports Apache Hop. We’re ready to help you in every step of your Apache Hop journey with production support, coaching, architecture and training.
Contact us to find out more.
