Dear Apache APISIX Community,
We were glad to see Ming Wen's proposal and his mention of our project, apisix-dashboard-unofficial, as a way to help make Apache APISIX easier to use. I'm one of the co-founders of the apisix-dashboard-unofficial project, along with Zikang Li(@Lensual)[1]. As full-stack engineers, we've both used Apache APISIX quite a bit in our daily jobs. When the official APISIX Dashboard's compatibility issues started impacting our work with the newer APISIX versions, our first thought was to build a new UI just to solve this problem for our own team. We decided on a frontend-heavy approach with a minimal or even no backend, to keep things simple. As we started building it, we realized that this approach could potentially benefit the APISIX community as well. Currently, the project is moving along according to our plan[2]. We hope to have an MVP ready by the end of Q2 that can do everything the current dashboard does. Then, in Q3, we aim to release a version that's fully ready for production use – one that's better than the current dashboard in terms of features, stability, ease of use, and security. Achieving this goal for a production-grade web UI requires significant effort, especially on the frontend. While we (Zikang Li and I) are committed and making steady progress alongside our full-time jobs, we believe that integrating with the Apache APISIX community is the best way to accelerate development and ensure a high-quality outcome. Bringing more developers onboard, particularly those with strong frontend expertise, would provide the necessary bandwidth and diverse perspectives to build a truly robust and user-friendly dashboard much faster. So, we really appreciate the positive feedback and the suggestion to collaborate. This is my first time getting involved with a large open-source project, and I'm genuinely excited about the potential to work together with the community to build this new dashboard. Best regards, Tianyi Liu (icebound) [1]lenvis...@gmail.com [2]https://github.com/APISIX-Unofficial-UI/apisix-dashboard-unofficial/blob/main/docs/roadmap_2025.md At 2025-04-02 21:49:33, "Yi Sun" <su...@apache.org> wrote: >Dear APISIX Community, > >This is a good idea. Frontend communicating with the APISIX Admin API >directly will reduce the mental burden on developers. Removing the >manager API layer as a proxy will help contributors understand APISIX >more quickly and accurately, and also allow Dashboard to adapt to the >latest version of APISIX more rapidly. > >APISIX's stable and fast iteration depends on comprehensive test case >coverage. I hope the next version of Dashboard will have test coverage >like the APISIX repository to ensure the project's stability and >reliability. As an APISIX committer and early maintainer of the >Dashboard project, I am also very willing to assist in introducing a >testing framework to the project and make other contributions. > >Thanks. > >Akshay Kumar <akshay.ku...@praction.in.invalid> 于2025年4月2日周三 19:26写道： >> >> Hello APISIX Community, >> >> Your thoughts on improving the APISIX Dashboard are greatly valued, and I >> appreciate the steps you intend to take. >> >> Moving forward, I fully support the re-architecting plan of the dashboard >> into a separate frontend that communicates with the APISIX Lua Admin API >> directly. This approach minimizes system complexity while achieving a closer >> integration with the core API, which is simpler to maintain and extend. >> >> The collaboration with the maintainers of the apisix-dashboard-unofficial >> project is promising, too. It does seem to provide a good starting point for >> a new streamlined APISIX web user interface that still maintains the core >> functions of APISIX. >> >> Would be happy to contribute into this. >> >> >> Best Regards, >> Akshay Kumar >> +91-9891215959 >> >> From: Ming Wen <wenm...@apache.org> >> Date: Wednesday, 2 April 2025 at 2:03 PM >> To: icebou...@163.com <icebou...@163.com>, lenvis...@gmail.com >> <lenvis...@gmail.com>, dev@apisix.apache.org <dev@apisix.apache.org> >> Subject: [DISCUSS] Proposal to Replace APISIX Dashboard with a Pure Frontend >> Solution >> Dear Apache APISIX Community, >> I am writing as a PMC member of Apache APISIX regarding the current >> challenges with the APISIX Dashboard project. Due to architectural design >> limitations, the existing dashboard is incompatible with APISIX 3.9 and >> later versions. >> >> To resolve this issue, I propose restructuring the dashboard into a >> pure frontend project that directly calls the Apache APISIX Lua Admin API. >> This approach eliminates API version compatibility issues and schema >> mismatches for plugins. Additionally, we aim to keep the concepts and >> operations fully aligned with the Admin API, avoiding unnecessary >> abstraction or secondary encapsulation. This would make it easier for >> developers to get started with Apache APISIX through a UI without >> additional complexity. >> >> While exploring this approach, I came across the open-source project >> apisix-dashboard-unofficial[1]. After discussing with this project's >> maintainers (who are CC’d on this email), they have expressed their >> willingness to collaborate. Given its existing design, I believe this >> project can serve as a replacement for the current Apache APISIX Dashboard. >> We could initiate a transition by creating a new branch and iterating from >> there. >> >> I’d love to hear the community’s thoughts on this direction. Looking >> forward to your feedback and discussion. >> >> [1] https://github.com/APISIX-Unofficial-UI/apisix-dashboard-unofficial >> >> Thanks, >> Ming Wen, Apache APISIX PMC Chair
