[!note] This is a major upgrade focused on AI workflows: it adds AI Assistant, MCP Server, API Keys, and editor plugin support, along with a revamped admin navigation experience. Please make a complete backup before upgrading to prevent any data loss.

We're excited to announce Apache Answer 2.0.0, a major milestone release that brings powerful AI capabilities and significant enhancements to the platform! This version introduces AI Assistant, MCP Server, API Keys, and editor plugin support, transforming how users interact with Answer through intelligent workflows. Additionally, we've improved the admin navigation experience and added layout customization options.

As always, thank you to everyone in the community who contributed code, reviews, and feedback.

✨ New Features​

AI & Integration Capabilities​

• New: AI Assistant feature (#1479) by @shuashuai & @LinkinStars Empowers users with intelligent assistance directly within Answer, enabling AI-powered content generation, suggestions, and workflow automation.

• New: MCP Server feature (#1480) by @LinkinStars & @shuashuai Integrates Model Context Protocol (MCP) server support, enabling seamless connectivity with AI models and external services for enhanced functionality.

• New: API Keys feature (#1482) by @LinkinStars & @shuashuai Provides secure API key management for programmatic access, enabling developers to integrate Answer with external systems and automate workflows.

• New: Editor plugin support (#1481) by @robinv8 Extends the editor with plugin architecture, allowing developers to customize and enhance the editing experience with custom functionality.

🚀 Improvements​

Admin & User Experience​

• Improve: Enhanced convenience of the Admin navigation menu (#1483) by @shuashuai & @kumfo Redesigned admin navigation for improved usability and faster access to administrative functions.

• Improve: Added layout width option (#1484) by @shuashuai Gives users control over content layout width, allowing customization to match different screen sizes and preferences.

🐛 Bug Fixes​

Admin & User Management​

• Fixed: Missing result prompt after submitting user addition in Admin (#1457) by @bimakw Users now receive proper feedback when adding new users through the admin interface.

• Fixed: External ID notification issue (#1465) by @IfDougelseSa Resolves notification problems related to external ID handling.

• Fixed: Expanded avatar column length from 1024 to 2048 (#1463) by @csouls Increases avatar storage capacity to support higher resolution images.

Form & Input Handling​

• Fixed: Default value of 0 not displayed when SchemeForm input type is number by @shuashuai Ensures numeric default values are properly displayed in form inputs.

🎨 Other Changes​

• Major version upgrade This release represents a significant milestone with architectural improvements and new AI capabilities. Users upgrading from previous versions should review the new features and ensure compatibility with their workflows.

🙌 Contributor Acknowledgments​

A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through code, reviews, testing, and feedback. Your efforts help keep Apache Answer reliable and continuously improving.

Special thanks to the contributors (in alphabetical order):

• @bimakw
• @csouls
• @IfDougelseSa
• @kumfo
• @LinkinStars
• @robinv8
• @shuashuai

Upgrade now to enjoy these powerful new features and improvements! Remember to make a complete backup before upgrading. If you encounter any issues, please report them on GitHub.

Happy browsing! 🎉

We’re pleased to announce a new Apache Answer release! This version continues to refine the developer and user experience with improvements to SchemaForm behavior, frontend input validation, engineering tooling, and a number of important bug fixes that improve overall stability and correctness.

As always, thank you to everyone in the community who contributed code, reviews, and feedback.

✨ New Features​

SchemaForm Enhancements​

• New: SchemaForm Input values are always treated as strings (#1425) by @shuashuai This change unifies input value handling and avoids type inconsistencies between frontend and backend logic, improving predictability for plugin developers.

• New: <input type="number"> now requires setting min / max values on the frontend when needed (#1417) by @Dinesht04 Improves frontend validation by enforcing numeric boundaries earlier in the user input flow.

🚀 Improvements​

Engineering & Code Quality​

• Improve: Add golangci-lint to the lint target with related formatting and cleanup (#1437) by @ferhatelmas Helps maintain consistent Go code style and catches potential issues earlier in development.

• Improve: Bump mockgen to version 0.6.0 (#1434) by @ferhatelmas Keeps test tooling up to date and improves compatibility.

• Improve: Internal refactor to compile regular expressions once instead of on each text-clean invocation (#1430) by @ferhatelmas Reduces unnecessary overhead and improves runtime performance.

🐛 Bug Fixes​

Admin & Core Functionality​

• Fixed: “Language file not found.” error when changing the timezone in admin settings (#1427) by @LinkinStars

• Fixed: 500 error when opening any question (#1426) by @shuashuai & @LinkinStars

• Fixed: Edited answers were not updated correctly after moderation (#1423) by @LinkinStars

• Fixed: Default-generated Q&A missing initial version information when edited after installation (#1436) by @krypt0n123

Text Handling & Localization​

• Fixed: Multi-byte rune boundary issue when truncating long titles (#1431) by @ferhatelmas

• Fixed: Null pointer access in UI when branding retrieval fails (#1433) by @ferhatelmas

• Fixed: Correct language handler usage (GetLangByCtx) for accurate language detection (#1444) by @liruohrh

🎨 Other Changes​

• Footer UI adjustment The footer layout has been refined to reduce vertical space usage, resulting in a cleaner and more compact page layout.

🙌 Contributor Acknowledgments​

A big thank you to everyone who contributed to this release through code, reviews, testing, and feedback. Your efforts help keep Apache Answer reliable and continuously improving.

Special thanks to the contributors (in alphabetical order):

• @Dinesht04
• @ferhatelmas
• @krypt0n123
• @liruohrh

Upgrade now to enjoy these improvements and fixes! If you encounter any issues, please report them on GitHub.

Happy browsing! 🎉

Why Teams Are Looking for Alternatives to Stack Internal​

Stack Internal (formerly Stack Overflow for Teams) has long been a go-to solution for developer collaboration and internal Q&A. However, as teams expand across departments, many are finding it expensive, rigid, and less adaptable to broader organizational needs.

Common challenges include:

• High per-user costs that scale poorly.
• Limited customization and branding options.
• Vendor lock-in — all data hosted by Stack Overflow.
• Not suitable for customer-facing or non-developer communities.

That’s why more organizations are turning toward open-source or flexible SaaS Q&A platforms — solutions that offer both control and collaboration.

Among them, one project clearly stands out: Apache Answer.

Apache Answer: The Open-Source Alternative to Stack Internal​

Apache Answer is an open-source, community-driven Q&A platform under the Apache Software Foundation. It allows organizations to create internal or external Q&A spaces that mirror the best parts of Stack Overflow — while giving full control over data, customization, and integrations.

Key Features:

• Open-source and free to use — no per-user licensing fees.
• Self-hosted or cloud-deployable — your data, your infrastructure.
• Modern Q&A experience — with tags, voting, accepted answers, and search.
• Extensible APIs and integrations — fits into existing toolchains.
• Multilingual support — perfect for global teams.

For those who prefer a fully managed cloud option, the same technology also powers AnswerGrowth, a hosted SaaS version that simplifies deployment and maintenance.

Discourse​

Discourse is one of the most popular modern forum platforms and a solid choice for community discussions. It can be self-hosted or used via a paid hosting plan.

Pros:

• Highly customizable and extensible through plugins.
• Strong moderation tools and an active open-source community.

Cons:

• Forum-first design — lacks Stack Overflow-style Q&A structure.
• Can require technical management for self-hosted setups.

Best For: Public communities, developer user groups, or product discussions.

Question2Answer (Q2A)​

Question2Answer is one of the earliest open-source Q&A systems and remains a simple, lightweight choice for developers.

Pros:

• 100% free and open-source.
• Straightforward setup for small teams.

Cons:

• Outdated UI and limited extensibility.
• Minimal active development in recent years.

Best For: Small developer teams needing a basic self-hosted Q&A tool.

AnswerHub​

AnswerHub is an enterprise-grade Q&A and knowledge-sharing platform used by major companies such as Epic Games and Unity.

Pros:

• Rich moderation, analytics, and permission management.
• Designed for large-scale internal knowledge bases.

Cons:

• High pricing; not ideal for smaller teams.
• Proprietary software with limited flexibility.

Best For: Enterprises requiring private, large-scale developer Q&A environments.

Comparison: Best Stack Internal Alternatives in 2025​

How to Choose the Right Alternative​

When comparing alternatives, consider:

1. Hosting preference: Self-hosted (control) vs SaaS (convenience).
2. Budget: Open-source vs per-user pricing.
3. Integrations: Slack, GitHub, Jira, or custom tools.
4. Customization: Theming, workflows, and branding.
5. Use case: Developer collaboration, internal knowledge, or customer support.

If you want open-source flexibility and transparency, Apache Answer is the clear leader. If you prefer a managed solution, AnswerGrowth offers the same foundation as a fully hosted service.

Conclusion​

Stack Internal set the standard for collaborative knowledge sharing, but teams today demand more control, adaptability, and affordability.

Apache Answer delivers all of these — a community-driven, open-source alternative that empowers teams to own their knowledge and build tailored Q&A experiences.

And for organizations that prefer a managed environment, AnswerGrowth provides the same technology in a convenient SaaS form.

🌐 Explore Apache Answer: answer.apache.org

☁️ Try the hosted edition (AnswerGrowth): answergrowth.com

We're excited to announce the release of Apache Answer v1.7.0! This version brings significant improvements to the plugin ecosystem, user interface, and overall user experience. Thank you to all contributors who made this release possible.

New Features​

Quicklinks Plugin​

The Quicklinks plugin is now available and integrated by default, providing administrators with powerful navigation management capabilities. This plugin allows you to create custom quick links that help users navigate your community more efficiently.

• New: Quicklinks Plugin (apache/answer-plugins#269) by @shuashuai
• New: Integrated Quicklinks plugin by default (#1405) by @LinkinStars

Improvements​

Form & Schema Enhancements​

• schemaForm support tagSelector component (#1380) by @shuashuai
  Plugin developers can now use tagSelector components in schemaForm, making it easier to create forms with tag selection capabilities.

Layout & UI Improvements​

• The question detail page no longer displays the pinned status (#1393) by @shuashuai
  Cleaner question detail page without redundant pinned status indicators.

• Unified question URL path (#1392) by @shuashuai
  Consistent URL structure for questions improves SEO and user experience.

• Related will display an empty area when there is no content (#1394) by @Dinesht04
  Better visual feedback when related content is not available.

• Optimize responsive layout (#1406) by @shuashuai
  Enhanced mobile and tablet experience with improved responsive design.

User Experience Enhancements​

• Make tags optional when creating new questions (#1177) by @Dinesht04
  Users can now create questions without tags, providing more flexibility in question creation.

• Make "Body" part of the question optional (#842) by @Dinesht04
  Questions can be created with just a title, allowing for simpler question formats.

Command-Line Tool Enhancement​

• Add resetPassword option to command-line tool (#1400, #1308) by @sosyz
  Administrators can now reset user passwords directly from the command line, improving account management capabilities.

Bug Fixes​

Image & Media Fixes​

• Fixed: Images in answers not correctly resized (#1404) by @shuashuai
  Images in answers now properly resize according to container dimensions.

Notification System Fixes​

• Fixed: New Question Notification Message not get trigger_user (#1384, #1385) by @light-white
  Notification messages now correctly include the trigger user information.

• Fixed: New Question Notification Message not get new tag (#1382, #1383) by @light-white
  Notifications now properly include new tag information when tags are added to questions.

User & Authentication Fixes​

• Fixed: sync username character (#1397) by @sy-records
  Username character synchronization issue resolved.

Theme & Styling Fixes​

• Fixed: Dark Mode: Wrong background color for code block (#1368) by @Dinesht04
  Code blocks now display correctly in dark mode with proper background colors.

Plugin System Fixes​

• Fixed: Plugin installation: build failed failed to copy ui files (#1376) by @hgaol
  Plugin installation now correctly copies UI files during the build process.

New Contributors​

We're thrilled to welcome new contributors to the Apache Answer community:

• @light-white made their first contribution in #1382

Thank you for joining our community and contributing to Apache Answer!

Contributor Acknowledgments​

Thank you to all developers and community members who contributed to v1.7.0! Your code contributions, issue reports, documentation improvements, and testing efforts made this release possible.

Special thanks to our contributors (in alphabetical order):

• @Dinesht04
• @hgaol
• @light-white
• @LinkinStars
• @shuashuai
• @sosyz
• @sy-records

And all community members who participated in discussions, testing, and feedback.

For the complete changelog, please visit the GitHub comparison page.

Join Us​

Apache Answer is an open-source project, and we welcome all forms of contribution:

• Code Contributions: Submit PRs on GitHub
• Issue Reports: Report bugs or suggest features
• Documentation Improvements: Help improve documentation and translations
• Community Support: Help other users in forums and discussions

Contact​

• Mailing List: dev@answer.apache.org
• GitHub: apache/answer
• Official Website: answer.apache.org
• Documentation: answer.apache.org/docs

Let's build a better Q&A platform together!

We're thrilled to announce our latest release, packed with new features, meaningful enhancements, and critical bug fixes! Here’s what’s new:

✨ New Features​

• Customizable Suspension Durations
  Admins can now define custom suspension periods for users, offering greater flexibility in moderation.
  (Thanks @shuashuai, @LinkinStars | #1361)

⚙️ Improvements​

• Refined Search Results
  Reduced ambiguity in search outputs for clearer navigation.
  (Thanks @sy-records | #1351)
• Streamlined Admin Interface
  Relocated "Settings → Users" section to the "Interface" tab for better organization.
  (Thanks @shuashuai, @LinkinStars | #1360)
• Enhanced Content Styling
  Improved visual design of <hr> tags within main content areas.
  (Thanks @shuashuai | #1364)

🐞 Bug Fixes​

• System Stability Fix
  Resolved an issue causing unexpected software halts during abnormal events.
  (Thanks @LinkinStars | #1356)
• UI Consistency Update
  Fixed dark-themed dropdown menus in the navbar to align with UI standards.
  (Thanks @shuashuai | #1355)

❤️ Thanks to Our Contributors​

A huge thank you to all the contributors who helped improve this release (sorted by GitHub ID):
@LinkinStars, @shuashuai, @sy-records

Your contributions make this project better with every update! 🚀

These updates reflect our commitment to a smoother, more intuitive experience. Thank you to our contributors and users for your ongoing support! 🚀

Stay tuned for more enhancements!

We're excited to announce the release of version 1.5.1! This update brings several improvements and bug fixes to enhance usability and stability. Below are the key changes in this release.

🔧 Improvements​

• Separate Background Color for Navigation
  The navigation bar now has a distinct background color for better visual separation and improved user experience. (Thanks @shuashuai & @LinkinStars #1346)

• Enhanced Admin Menu
  The admin menu has been refined for better organization and usability. (Thanks @shuashuai #1345)

• Refined Command Usage Statements
  Command-line tool usage descriptions have been improved for clarity. (Thanks @Octobug #1330)

• Comprehensive Tests for KV Storage Plugin
  Added thorough testing for the key-value storage plugin to ensure reliability. (Thanks @sosyz #1344)

🐞 Bug Fixes​

• Google Login Users Losing Image Access
  Fixed an issue where users logging in via Google connector couldn't access images. (Thanks @Giorgio-Bonvicini-R4P #1334)

• Username Minimum Length Inconsistency
  Resolved a mismatch where the admin panel still enforced a 4-character minimum despite the setting being reduced to 2. (Thanks @sy-records #1341)

• Code Snippet Layout Breakage
  Fixed a bug where code snippets could disrupt the page layout. (Thanks @shuashuai #1329)

• Image Placement When Copying Mixed Content
  Corrected an issue where pasted images would always appear at the end of copied text-and-image content. (Thanks @shuashuai)

❤️ Thanks to Our Contributors​

A huge thank you to all the contributors who helped improve this release (sorted by GitHub ID):
@Giorgio-Bonvicini-R4P, @LinkinStars, @Octobug, @shuashuai, @sosyz, @sy-records

Your contributions make this project better with every update! 🚀

Upgrade now to enjoy these improvements and fixes! If you encounter any issues, please report them on GitHub.

Happy browsing! 🎉

🎉 New Features​

Full-Width Layout with Sticky Left Menu​

This update introduces a brand-new full-width layout. The left menu now supports sticky positioning, and the admin panel menu maintains consistency with the main site while adding icons to distinguish between different navigation levels, providing users with a smoother browsing experience.

Tag Merge Feature​

Added a tag merge feature for administrators and moderators. After merging, questions and followers associated with the source tag will be transferred to the new tag.

🔧 Improvements​

• Unified Admin Panel Left Menu Style: The left menu in the admin panel now matches the site's style, improving visual consistency.
• Optimized Mobile Search & Question Layout: Enhanced the search and question page layouts on mobile devices for easier navigation.
• Prevent Suspended Users from Logging In: The system now blocks suspended users from logging in, improving security.
• Auto-Set Server Time Zone as Default: Automatically detects the server's location during installation and sets the default time zone, reducing manual configuration.
• Search Plugin for Similar Questions on Ask Page: Allows using a search plugin to quickly find similar questions when posting, avoiding duplicates.
• Optimized Reaction Button Style in Dark Theme: Improved the visual design of reaction buttons in dark mode.

🐞 Bug Fixes​

• Username Minimum Length Set to 2: Fixed a bug where the username minimum length was set to 2 but still prompted for a minimum of 4 characters.
• Suspended Users Receiving Email Notifications: Resolved an issue where suspended users could still receive email notifications.
• Duplicate Questions in Tag Search: Fixed a bug where searching by tag could return duplicate questions.
• answer build --output Relative Path Not Working: Corrected an issue where using relative paths for build output was ineffective.
• Nil Pointer Error When Fetching Tags: Fixed a nil pointer error that could occur when retrieving tags under certain conditions.
• Duplicate Security Requirements in Swagger Docs: Removed redundant security requirement declarations in Swagger documentation.

❤️ Thanks You Contributions​

A big thanks to all contributors who helped develop this release (sorted by GitHub ID): @hgaol, @LinkinStars, @seiyab, @shuashuai, @sy-records, @xuthus5

Your contributions made this release even better! 🚀

🎉 New Features​

Flexible Question Layouts​

Add view layout options:

• Card: Show a summary of no more than 2 lines

• Compact: Show only the title

Markdown, Elevated​

• Footnote Support: Add references without cluttering your text.

• One-Click Code Copy: Simplify sharing with code block copy buttons.

• Line Break Parsing Fix: Comments with line breaks now render correctly.

Security & Control​

• Permanent Delete: Remove sensitive content irreversibly when needed.
• External Image Toggle: Disable external images to protect privacy or reduce clutter.
• Automatic File Cleanup: Unused files? The system now clears them automatically.

🔧 Improvements​

• PostgreSQL SSL Support: Encrypt database connections for enhanced security.
• Password Verification During Installation: Added checks to prevent login lockouts from initial setup errors.
• Legal Compliance: Added "Privacy Policy" and "Terms of Service" links in the footer.
• 𝕏 Social Share Update: The share dropdown now reflects Twitter’s rebranding to "X".

🐞 Bug Fixes​

• Image Uploads Restored: Answer questions with images smoothly.
• Plugin Build Timeouts: Fixed ERR_SOCKET_TIMEOUT during local plugin development.
• Translate Badges Fixed: Multilingual tags now display correctly.
• Admin Name Validation: It now follows the same rules as the registration page.

⚙️ Under the Hood​

• Code Quality Boost: Added linting steps for consistent UI code.
• SEO Guard: Blocked /swagger/* paths from search engines by default.

❤️ Thank You Contributors​

Meet the new faces and greet the old acquaintances in this release today. Let's give a round of applause to: codewec, LinkinStars, shuaishuai, sy-records, miicchelle, unical1988, CodexX777, and Mindslayer001.

We hope you enjoy the new features and improvements in Apache Answer 1.4.5! As always, we appreciate your feedback and contributions. Happy connecting!

🎉 New Features​

Attachment Upload​

We’re excited to introduce the long-awaited attachment-upload feature! Now you can easily share relevant files with your questions.

You can config the Authorized attachment extensions in the Admin Panel to specify the file types you want to allow.

Key Metrics Dashboard​

Get insights at a glance! Our new dashboard now includes key metrics(Resolved/Unanswered), helping you track your response rate.

Add "Frequent" tab​

Finding the most linked questions just got easier! With the new "Frequent" tab, you can filter and view the questions that are most often connected.

🔧 Improvements​

• Enhanced Readability: Long code snippets can be challenging to read, but we’ve made improvements to ensure they’re more digestible.
• Reminder Email Update: We’ve added a "Do not reply directly" message to our reminder emails to avoid confusion. Thanks, @sosyz, for the suggestion!
• SEO Enhancements: We’ve optimized the user homepage for better search engine visibility.

🐞 Bug Fixes​

• Markdown Parsing Fix: We resolved an issue where ordered list numbers were not incrementing correctly during markdown parsing.
• Tag Display Exception: The change list/unlist action now works smoothly without causing tag display exceptions.
• Timezone Display Issue: The timezone display on the Dashboard page has been corrected, ensuring it shows properly when set to UTC.
• Content Duplication Fix: We’ve resolved the duplication of content on the results page.
• User Addition Fix: The unexpected username length restriction in the Admin Panel has been lifted, allowing for smoother user additions.

❤️ Special Thanks​

We hope you enjoy the new features and improvements in Apache Answer 1.4.2! As always, we appreciate your feedback and contributions. Happy connecting!

Apache Answer has graduated from the Apache Incubator to become a Top-Level Project (TLP).

Apache Answer is a modern, open source Q&A platform designed to help organizations build their knowledge base and community. The software enables teams and communities to collaboratively create, share, and discover knowledge in a structured and efficient way.

"Apache Answer's graduation as a Top-Level Project marks a significant milestone in our journey," said Ning Qi, Vice President of Apache Answer. "This achievement reflects the dedication of our community and the maturity of our platform in providing a Q&A platform solution for knowledge management and community engagement."

Since its inception in October 2022, Apache Answer has gained significant traction in the open-source community, with contributions from over 80 developers who have collaboratively addressed hundreds of issues and pull requests. This active engagement demonstrates the project's vitality and commitment to continuous improvement, showcasing the power of collaborative open-source development.

Advantages of Apache Answer​

Apache Answer offers key features to enhance knowledge sharing and community engagement.

Easy and Intuitive Q&A Community​

Apache Answer offers an intuitive setup for newcomers, enabling them to quickly set up a Q&A platform with helpful documentation. Its design allows effortless question-asking and answering, fostering community engagement on both mobile and desktop devices.

Efficient Content Management​

Administrators can use tags to categorize questions, allowing community members to easily search and find relevant information. By following tags, users can always stay updated on their interested content and display them in the way they need.

Add Wings with Plugin​

Users can enhance Apache Answer by adding or extending features through plugins, allowing customization to fit specific workflows. This flexibility enables integration with third-party systems, improving adaptability and performance.

Reputation Scores and Incentives​

Apache Answer features a reputation system that rewards users for contributing quality content, accepting top answers, and receiving votes. This encourages content quality, fosters credibility, and promotes a sense of accomplishment within the community.

In the future, with continuous contributions from the open-source community, Apache Answer is expected to evolve, introducing new features and enhancements that will further expand its capabilities and meet diverse user needs.

Answer Community​

Over the past years, Answer has gradually built a dynamic community.

Since the first release, Answer has had a total of 29 releases, 13K+ GitHub Stars, and over 100K+ downloads (from dockerhub). We have worked in collaboration with 78 code contributors and 162 volunteers from around the world, receiving a total of 323 pull requests. Answer has also been translated into 15 different languages.

The PMC Members of the Answer project are listed as follows, and big thanks to their significant contributions:

• Christofer Dutz
• Justin Mclean
• Willem Ning Jiang
• Zili Chen
• Anne Zhu
• Enxin Xie
• Feng Dong
• Fengjun Lv
• Guangfu Yang
• Luffy
• Nadia Jiang
• Ning Qi
• Shuailing Li
• Yubin Ren

You can view all the contributors to Answer here: https://answer.apache.org/community/team

Join The Answer Community​

Answer's power comes from the talented contributors in its community. While we celebrate this moment, we would also like to invite more contributors to be a part of our Apache journey. If you are interested in this project, please check it out and join us.

• Visit Answer's official website: http://answer.apache.org/
• Explore and contribute to our GitHub: https://github.com/apache/answer
• Check our documentation: https://answer.apache.org/docs
• Join our official community: https://meta.answer.dev/
• Meet us in Discord: https://discord.gg/c537sFxu

Apache Answer software is released under the Apache License v2.0 and is overseen by a self-selected team of active contributors to the project. A Project Management Committee (PMC) guides the Project's day-to-day operations, including community development and product releases.

The weather is getting colder, and time to light up the knowledge fireplace. In this release, we add new features to provide context for your knowledge flow in an easy way. There're also improvements in different ways: display, color, SEO template, etc. Don't miss the 4 new plugins that streamline Answer with the tools you love.

Linking Question: Connect the Knowledge Dots​

By linking similar/related questions, users can easily explore relevant discussions and find additional context. This feature not only improves the experience but also strengthens the community by fostering collaboration and knowledge sharing.

How to​

Simply copy and paste the string of the question/answer you want to link to the editor, and add # before it.

You can always click the string and jump right to that page where you can see all the linked questions on the right side of the page. Feel free to keep exploring.

Enhancements and Fixes​

Get ready for a smoother user experience with more flexible user profiles and improved personal page displays. Additionally, the platform's performance has been optimized by loading plugins on demand, reducing initial load times.

A number of bug fixes have also been implemented, including resolving issues with question links in SEO templates, language file formatting, plugin registration, and tag selector glitches, etc.

New Plugins: Level up with the Tools You Like​

There're four new plugins in this release too. Tencent Cloud Object Storage plugin lets users store and manage various types of content efficiently. Ding talk notification allows you to receive notification in Ding Talk webhook robot. Baidu reviewer plugin enables Apache Answer to integrate with Baidu's review system, helping to shape a safe environment for the community.

Slack User Center is one of our OSPP projects and our PPMC member LinkinStar assisted Anan1225 to complete this task in the summer holiday. This plugin allows you to login and authorization with Slack, receive notification in Slack, etc.

Thank You Contributors​

Meet the new faces and greet the old acquaintances in this release today. Let's give a round of applause to: ourai, robinv8, LinkinStars, shuaishuai, sosyz, sy-records, zahash, Anan1225, and prithvidasgupta.

Become a Part of Our Roadmap​

We are open to new ideas, advice, and anything on your mind. Check out roadmap, and tell us what's on your mind.

We’re excited to announce our new PPMC member: Lu Fei. Lu Fei has been involved in Apache Answer community since last October. Today, he has submitted 42 PRs and resolved 31 Issues in both the main and the plugin repository. As an active community member, Lu Fei’s contribution covers bug fixes, new features, and doc improvement.

We invite Lu Fei to share his journey with Apache Answer and we hope that his story can inspire more open-source enthusiasts.

Meet Apache Answer​

Becoming a PPMC member of the Apache Answer incubator project means so much to me. It is more than a milestone, but a valuable open-source journey watching Answer grow from small project to a thriving community.

I actually had a chance to join the SegmentFault team before Answer was even open-sourced, but things didn't work out. Looking back, I kind of kicked myself for missing out on this opportunity!

On October 24th 2022, Answer was launched and open sourced. When I saw that news, I jumped right in and checked on the repo. Then, I submitted my first PR: doc: update install. Answer is built with Go and Node.js while I’m a more of a PHP person, so I was swaying away from it.

The following year, Answer passed the vote and joined the ASF incubator. My second PR: fix: typo was submitted by that time.

The WeChat group of SegmentFault was buzzing with congrats, while a question arose: 'When can I get my own @apache.org email?' I muted the chat and got back to work but couldn’t help thinking about that question.

Get to Know Apache Software Foundation​

After Answer became a polling project, I started learning more about it and here’s what I’d love to share.

The Apache Incubator​

The Apache Incubator was started in 2002 to help projects get ready to become part of the ASF. The ASF is huge—it's the world's largest open-source foundation with thousands of contributors working on hundreds of projects. From web servers and big data to storage and machine learning, Apache software is everywhere. And it's all free to use!

Each project in the incubator will be assigned with a few mentors who help guide them as they grow and become fully-fledged ASF projects. Once a project has met all the requirements, it can graduate and become a top-level project (TLP).

The Apache Way​

The "Apache Way" is a core philosophy of the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) that outlines a set of community governance principles for open-source projects. It emphasizes transparency, collaboration, and community-driven project management, ensuring that projects aren't controlled by a select few but are driven forward by a group of contributors. Here are some key principles of the "Apache Way":

1. Community-Driven Development: Projects are driven by the community, not individuals or companies.
2. Transparency: All discussions and decisions are open to everyone. It is typically done through mailing lists or public discussion platforms.
3. Consensus-Based Decision Making: Important decisions are made through consensus. This minuses confrontational disagreements while ensuring that most of the community supports key changes to the project.
4. Respect and Inclusion: A welcoming environment for all contributors.
5. Contributor-driven: Everyone has the opportunity to take on greater responsibilities through contributions. The progression from Contributor to Committer to PMC Member (Project Management Committee) is based on contributions and community trust.

By following these principles, Apache projects foster collaboration, innovation, and long-term sustainability.

Becoming a Committer​

I was hooked on Apache Answer because of its tech stack. As a developer eager to learn Go, this was the perfect opportunity to put my skills into practice. I started with good first issue which was a great way to get my feet wet. I started with some simple tasks, like fixing typos and adding small features.

The community was incredibly supportive, and with their guidance, I gradually gained a deeper understanding of the project's architecture. As my Go skills improved, so did my contributions. I was thrilled when I was invited to become a Committer in June 2024. After signing the ICLA, I couldn't wait to have my Apache account!

On June 27, 2024, I received the email: Welcome to the Apache Software Foundation, and it was the time to unlock my ASF committer account.

Just a week later, on July 8th, I was added to the Apache Answer Committer list. Becoming a Committer is more than an identity, but taking on more responsibilities, including code reviews, quality checks, and helping new contributors.

From Committer to PPMC Member​

Becoming a Committer made me even more invested in Apache Answer. Beyond active participation in mailing lists and voting on releases, I started diving into issues, tackling bug fixes and feature enhancements. I also contributed new plugins, such as Tencent COS Storage, DingTalk Notifications, and Baidu Reviewer.

Being nominated for PPMC was both exciting and humbling. As a PPMC member, I’ll be working closely with the community to guide the project's direction, ensure we're following the Apache Way, and attract more developers. It's a big responsibility, but I'm thrilled to be a part of it.

Join the Community​

Apache Answer is a dynamic community. Whether you're a seasoned pro or just starting out, there’s always a space for you. Every part of Apache Answer, from its design to its code, is the work of talented people like you.

If you're into Q&A platform or open source, you should definitely check it out. Start small, maybe by fixing a typo or improving some documentation. You'll quickly learn the ropes and start making a real impact.

I want to give a huge shout-out to the amazing Apache Answer community. Your support has been incredible, and I'm excited to see where we go next.

An Apache release follows a rigorous process with valid, signed, artifacts, voted on by the appropriate PMC and ultimately distributed on the official ASF release infrastructure. Each project designates a committer to be release manager for release preparation, execution, and document maintenance, etc. Apache encourages committers to take turns in this role for different release, ensuring release quality, efficiency, and process optimization.

Since joining the Apache Incubator in October 2023, Apache Answer has released 8 Apache versions with 4 release managers involved. With their help, the project has accumulated Apache release experience. The process of merging code and packaging has become smoother, the Release doc includes more details, and the recent added email templates make writing voting emails easier.

In today's read, we will look back at the challenges encountered by the release managers during the release, how they solved them, and how they improved the release documentation and the release process.

Evolution of the Release Doc​

As the foundation of the release, the release doc provides detailed guidance. It also serves as a testament to the project’s maturity and independence in release management.

LinkinStars, a backend engineer, became Apache Answer’s first release manager. He crafted the initial version of the release doc with an entire release cycle and final deployment. In this version, the release doc packed with process from packaging, signing, verification, and uploading, as well as email templates. With his help, Apache Answer’s first Apache release was successfully launched on November 29th, 2023.

Later on, the PPMC members started to take turns following the guidance of the mentor. By rotating this role, the community was not only familiarized with the release process but also able to identify the optimization gap.

As the frontend developer of Apache Answer, shuai built Apache Answer’s frontend from scratch. He took up the torch and became the second release manager. During the release process, he enhanced the doc by elaborating of GPG keys, methods of file verification, and ways to obtain email links.

Kumfo has taken over from shuai as the third release manager for Apache Answer. As a backend developer, he contributed to the development of features related to reputation, upvoting, and other event-driven functionalities. He made modifications and additions based on feedback from IPMC Members.

Currently, the baton for releasing Apache Answer has passed to robin. He has made more detailed revisions to the documentation, such as breaking down some release steps, adding more details, and reorganizing the structure of the document for better clarity and sequence.

Read the latest release docs proudly presented and polished by the release managers.

Challenges and Solutions​

For LinkinStars, the first release was undoubtedly a huge challenge. He first worked with other PPMC members to collect and organize the relevant release documentation, creating an initial release process.

Click here to learn more about the behind-the-scenes story of Apache Answer's first Apache release.

After shuai‘s take-over, he referred to LinkinStars’ release documentation and prepared the GPG key and SVN configuration in advance. However, he still faced issues such as incorrect email subject/content, missing content after packaging, and incorrect signatures. To avoid formatting errors caused by copy-pasting in emails, shuai suggested creating a .txt file locally first, where the email template can be edited and modified before copying it into the email editor. He also created a GitHub repo of Apache release email templates to help other release managers avoid encountering such problems in the future.

When waiting for a General vote takes longer than expected, a REMINDER email can be sent for kindly notice. However, it is recommended to prioritize seeking vote from mentors.

In the Apache community, all communication is transparent and traceable, which is incredibly helpful for Release Managers referencing past Apache project release processes and emails. The community atmosphere at Apache is open and friendly, and when issues arise, someone will point them out and help resolve them in the emails. For example, during the General vote phase, a mentor pointed out that the release files uploaded to the SVN repository were incorrect, with the signed files having a size of 0. After several rounds of checks, it was found that the release manager had not properly downloaded the release files, and the browser had restricted the content, causing the downloaded files to be incorrect.

When talking to the release managers, all of them have mentioned the importance of collaboration and cooperation among release managers. Besides meticulous and repeated checks during the release, it is highly recommended to invite other release managers to help validate the release to ensure that every step is correct.

One of the graduation checklist items in Apache's successful graduation guide is the ability to release an Apache version. This requires not only clear release documentation and a transparent communication mechanism but also the collective effort of all community members. From requirement analysis, development, and testing to the final release, the collaboration among community members is key to ensuring a successful release. Apache Answer welcomes and encourages more people to join the community to help build a better Q&A platform software together.

Hope you enjoyed the spooky vibe of the Halloween. Here’s your October newsletter filled with chilling delights!

🫶 Community​

New award coming! We have received the award of cutting-edge open source projects and communities presented by China Communications Standards Association. Apache Answer has impressed the judges with its strong community, global reach, and technical flexibility, as shown in the preliminary round and the second round of interviews.

The community gets bigger! Give it up for our new committer: Qirui Song. He contributed a lark notification plugin and shared his notes in his blog.

Besides, he also helped with bug fixes and code quality improvement. We’re so glad to have such a versatile and active person joining the family.

OSPP goes well so far. Our mentors have reviewed the merged PR/MR from the students and wait for the final evaluation from the committee.

Coming up Next​

1.4.1 is now in the voting process and will be released in November. Have a sneak peek for the new version.

🤲 Got Something in Mind?​

Whether it’s a suggestion, bug report, or a question, you can always share it in our official Q&A community. Let’s make the future Q&A platform software better.

As the leaves swirl with the gold in the autumn wind, it’s the final quarter of the year. Time to do a quick recap of this season.

🌟 What’s New​

Apache Answer more features and stable performance in the latest 1.4.0.

Show the Badges: Show off your achievements with our new badges system. Earn badges for active participation, valuable contributions, and more!

Discover Your Personalized Feed: Get a tailored experience with our personalized feed, which recommends posts based on your interests and past interactions.

Code Highlight with Ease: Make your code snippets stand out with our enhanced code highlighting plugin. Customize the appearance and readability of your code.

Ready to upgrade? Here’s how.

🫶 Community​

The coding and development phase of OSPP is complete. Both the students have submitted their PRs and are waiting for the mentor’s final review. Well done!

🙌 Cheers to Contributors​

Shout out to to kumfo, robinv8, LinkinStars, shuaishuai, sosyz, sy-records, IamMelody233, CHENJUaaa, SantiagoLiendro, ferrischi201.

Special thanks to lehoa.strong for effort on translation and approval!

🤲 Talk to Us​

Feedback wanted! Contributors wanted! Feel free to connect with us via X, Discord, or in the community.

The wait is over, time to upgrade your knowledge sharing experience.

We celebrate your firsts and the good content with the badges. Explore the content in Recommend where we curate the list based on your following tags and questions. Don’t forget to pick a theme to highlight your code snippets whether for an answer or a question.

Badges: Celebrate and Showcase​

Your dedication and contribution deserve to be seen. In our latest update, we've introduced three new badge types to recognize your achievements:

• Getting Started: For those firsts in the community.
• Community: For accepted answer.
• Posting: For shared valuable questions and answers.

Want to see all the badges and ways to earn it? Just look to the left sidebar and click on any badge to learn more about its requirements and see who else has unlocked it.

You can see the badges you earned by clicking the Badges on your profile page.

Managing badges becomes handful for admins. Go Admin page and click Badges where you can check all the active badges. Hit action to choose the badges for your community.

Personalized Feed: Discover the Content You Love​

Our new personalized feed is here to change the endless scrolling. We pay attention to your following tags and questions. Based on that, we curate a personalized list of posts that we think you'll find engaging and relevant.

Click Recommend and start exploring your personalized feed we tailored for you.

Code Highlighting Plugin: Let the Code Shine​

Admins, it’s time to elevate the code readability with the latest plugins. Try render and code highlighting plugins.

Don’t forget to choose a preferred theme to suit community style and make code visually appealing.

We also addressed several bugs, including issues with mobile reactions, HTML source code, deleted answers, test cases, plugin conflicts, and subdirectory deployments.

Let’s Say Thank You​

Wow, we had 10 contributors in this release! The biggest gathering! Salute to kumfo, robinv8, LinkinStars, shuaishuai, sosyz, sy-records, IamMelody233, CHENJUaaa, SantiagoLiendro, ferrischi201.

We Love Your Thoughts​

We're eager to hear your feedback on this latest release. Did you find new features that have enhanced your experience? Are there any areas where you'd like to see improvements?

The open-source world is a place for everyone. It thrives on diversity and that's why we believe that there's always a place for you. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just getting started, your contributions-code, documentations, or shining ideas-are valuable.

To make it easier for beginners, we've listed our projects on platforms like ovio, LibHunt, and SourceForge for easier discovery. We're glad to have received a plugin contribution from Melody and her classmate from Xiamen University Malaysia Campus. It's their first open-source contribution, and let's hear about the process and their reflection.

Tell us more about the plugin.​

We've built a code highlighting plugin using React and highlight.js. The plugin offers real-time syntax highlighting for a wide range of programming languages and supports dynamic theme switching. Users can choose from popular themes like GitHub Light and GitHub Dark, or create their own custom themes.

How did you break down the development of this plugin?​

There are several phases as below. First, we started with a simple implementation of code highlighting in the project itself. Once this was working, we moved forward to transforming it into a single plugin.

Since plugins mostly deal with the front-end stuff, we focused on that first. After we got the basic highlighting running, we added customization which allows users to choose their preferred theme from the backend. To make that happen, we set up an interface between the front-end and back-end.

To sum up:

1. Import highlight.js and implement basic code highlighting on the front-end.
2. Migrate the code highlighting feature into a plugin. Well, Vite's bundling got in the way of importing all the CSS we needed, so we had to use CSS-in-JS instead.
3. We noticed that switching to the light theme and the preview box under Question weren't working smoothly. So, we tweaked some dependencies and added more responsive listeners to fix it
4. Once the front-end was stable, we turned our attention to the backend. We created a form for users to select their preferred themes.
5. By modifying the frontend-backend interface, we were able to dynamically apply the selected themes.
6. When testing, we identified performance issues related to CSS loading. To optimize performance, we switched to a dynamic import and mapping approach to reduce CSS load times.
7. Finally, for better maintainability and readability, we wrote code to parse the core library and automate theme detection, classification, and switching."

How do you solve the problems encoutered in the process?​

Yes, there were a few challenges during development. For instance:

• CSS Loading: Importing multiple CSS stylesheets was a problem because of Vite's packaging limitations. We overcame this by adopting a CSS-in-JS solution.
• Theme Switching: The preview box below the Question wasn't in real-time rendering when switching between light and dark modes. To resolve this, we optimized dependencies and implemented more robust event listeners.
• Backend Integration: Integrating the backend form with the frontend was another hurdle. We solved this by leveraging the Answer API to facilitate data exchange between the front-end and back-end.
• Code Maintenance: To streamline future maintenance, we implemented file traversal to read the core library instead of manual imports.

By addressing these issues, we were able to enhance the plugin's performance and gain a deeper understanding of the underlying technologies.

What new insights have we gained about the open-source community?​

Working on open-source projects has taught us the importance of community and collaboration. Every little thing you do, like writing code or sharing ideas, helps make Answer better. It's not just about knowing how to code; you also need to be good at talking to other people. When you work together, you can make sure everything works right, especially when fixing problems.

We've learned that having great coding skills isn't enough. You need to really understand how the project works inside and out. That means learning from others and using their ideas. Open source isn't just about sharing tech; it's about sharing ideas and being creative. It helps everyone get better and makes us want to do our best

How would you encourage students to participate in open source projects?​

Working on these projects has helped us truly understand how open source works and the importance of teamwork. We think students should definitely get involved in open source projects. It's a great way to learn and practice coding.

By contributing, students can get real-world experience, solve real problems, and meet other people in tech. Start small and work your way up. Whether you write code, document things, or test stuff, there's a place for everyone. Open source can help you learn new things and add testimonials for your skills on your resume.

These two students didn't just write code; they went the extra mile! They created guides to help others set things up and contributed blog posts about how to configure the frontend and backend, as well as add new plugins. Plus, they updated and translated the docs to make them easier to understand for Chinese speakers.

We're so grateful for their hard work! We hope more students will join us in making open source a welcoming place. There are lots of ways to get involved, even if you're not a coder. Click here to check it out and give it a try.

As the days grow shorter and the nights cooler, here comes the newsletter of August. Time to recap the new release, fresh features, and give big hugs to the contributors.

Let's go!

🌟 What’s New​

We brought the heart of bringing smoother Q&A experience in every release for more people. In the latest 1.3.6, we introduced two CDN plugins for fast loading speed and pre-filled forms for helping users to stay concentrated on editing the content. Learn more about the details and how-to tutorials in the blog as well as optimizations carried in the release.

New Tutorial: Setup and Plugin​

Besides new features, we also received three new blogs from the community, covering configuration and plugin tutorial.

We understand that it can be challenging for developers to set up the environment with Developer Guides. Now, it gets easier, simply following the blogs with step-to-step configuration and installation guide for both frontend and backend.

That’s not it. You can also follow another guide on adding plugins to make Answer powerful for your community.

New Translation​

The new tutorial above supports both Chinese and English. Besides, there're updates for localization. Now, you can explore the Chinese version for Introduction and Getting Started.

If you are willing to join the localization family, don't hesitate to join us. Find out how to get started here.

🫶 Community​

We put together our preparation and observation from the events we joined in the blog. Feel free to refer to it and get ready for your next big event.

🙌 Cheers to Contributors​

Thank you for making the features, shining the tweaks, and fixing the bugs. kevin, kumfo, hgaol, robin, LinkinStars, dashuai, and Luffy.

We would also love to extend sincere gratitude to the hero behind the new tutorial and localization IamMelody233.

🤲 We Want You​

In Answer community, we sing for the good deeds. Besides coding and localization, your feedback also matters. Feel free to connect with us via X, email, or in the community.

Plugins are like a set of building blocks that you can freely combine to create the functionality you want. Adding plugins is an excellent way to extend Apache Answer's features. This article will provide a detailed guide on the installation steps, helping you easily add plugins and master the process of installing and using them.

Download Plugins​

1. Click here to download the desired plugin from the official Apache Answer plugin repository.
2. Place the Plugin: Move the downloaded plugin files into the ./ui/src/plugins directory of your project.
3. Plugin Type Reference: https://answer.apache.org/docs/development/plugins

Important: The folder should be named "plugins," not "plugin."

Install Standard UI Plugin​

1. In the terminal, run cd ./ui to navigate to the ui directory.
2. Install dependencies: Run pnpm pre-install.
3. Start the project: Run pnpm start to launch the development server.
4. Backend Plugin Setup: In a new terminal window, continue with the backend plugin installation steps.

Install Backend Plugin​

1. Compile Frontend Code:

• Linux/MacOS: Run make ui.
• Windows: Run pnpm install and pnpm build.

2. Import Plugin: In the cmd/answer/main.go file, import the plugin (replace my-plugin with your plugin name):

import (
    answercmd "github.com/apache/answer/cmd"
    // Import the plugins
    _ "github.com/apache/answer-plugins/my-plugin"
)

The image below shows examples with the editor-chart, editor-formula, and embed-basic plugins.

3. Update go.mod: Navigate back to the project root directory by running cd ... Use go mod edit to add the plugin to the go.mod file:

go mod edit -replace=github.com/apache/answer-plugins/my-plugin=./ui/src/plugins/my-plugin

Note: Windows users need to use double quotes, as shown below:

go mod edit -replace="github.com/apache/answer-plugins/my-plugin"="./ui/src/plugins/my-plugin"

Example with the editor-chart, editor-formula, and embed-basic plugins.

4. Download Dependencies: Run go mod tidy to download and update dependencies.
5. Start the Project: Run go run cmd/answer/main.go run -C ./answer-data.

Open the backend interface URL in your browser. Under the Admin - Installed Plugins section, you'll see the added plugins. Click the ⋮ in the Action column to activate or remove the plugin.

Congratulations, you've successfully added a plugin! Click here to explore more community-built plugins. Additionally, we offer a detailed tutorial on How to Package and Deploy Answer Plugins and a Plugin Development Guide to make your Apache Answer even more powerful.

In the Apache Answer Frontend Configuration Guide, we believe that everyone was able to follow each step to complete the frontend configuration. This article will provide a detailed guide on how to configure the backend of Apache Answer. We will go through each step, ensuring that everyone can get started and run the backend successfully.

Preparation​

1. Download Golang Download and install the Go programming language from the official website. Follow the default settings for installation.

2. Clone the Answer Project Ensure that you have cloned the Apache Answer project locally. If you haven’t done so yet, please refer to the Apache Answer Frontend Configuration Guide.

I. Initialize the Project​

Open the command line terminal in the root directory of the Answer project and run the following commands:

go mod download
go run cmd/answer/main.go init -C ./answer-data

Note: If the first command doesn't work, try running the second one. The process may take some time, please be patient.

When you see [SUCCESS], means the operation has done. Do not close this program at this time. Enter the prompted URL http://localhost:80/install/ in your web browser to open and proceed with the next step of the installation.

Note: If you cannot find the localhost page when opening the URL, try running the following command first and then retry:

cd ./ui
pnpm pre-install
pnpm install
pnpm build
cd ..

II. Installation Interface​

Open http://localhost:80/install/, and you will see the following interface. The first step is to choose the language.

2.1 Configure the Database​

You can create an Answer database using your own database software. Apache Answer supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQLite as database backends. The smallest environment requirement is SQLite, which doesn't need any additional configuration. If you plan to use MySQL or PostgreSQL, you need to set up the database first and then configure the database connection in this step.

This article will use MySQL as an example.

Create a Database​

In the MySQL command line, create a database named answer:

Configure the Database Connection​

Visit http://localhost:80/install/, and enter your database connection information in the installation interface:

• User name: root
• Database host: 127.0.0.1:3306
• Password: your database password

2.2 Create a Configuration File​

In the installation interface, follow the prompts to create a config.yaml file.

2.3 Set Website Information and Administrator Account​

Make sure to remember the website URL (e.g., http://localhost) and the administrator account information and password, as you will need them for future logins.

2.4 Complete the Installation​

III. Run the Backend​

Back to the command line terminal, and in the root directory of the Answer project, run the following command to start the backend server:

go run cmd/answer/main.go run -C ./answer-data

IV. Verify the Installation​

In your web browser, visit the website URL you set up (e.g., http://localhost). Log in with your administrator account. If you see the following page, the configuration is successful:

By following these steps, you have successfully set up the Apache Answer backend. If you encounter any issues, feel free to communicate with our community members in the community. We also warmly welcome you to contribute to the community and work together to build a better Q&A platform.