I’m thrilled to announce the release of Launchpad 2.0!

This brings together new features from the past nine months of Launchpad’s development and introduces two exciting beta features.

And, of course, if you’ve visited Launchpad recently you’ll have seen our new, simpler, layout and navigation.

Let’s take a look at the key new features in this release.

Restful web services API and Python library

One of our main goals for Launchpad 2.0 has been to make it easier to manipulate data in Launchpad.

With this release, we’re introducing a beta test of two things that will enable you to develop external applications that can authenticate,

query and modify data in Launchpad’s database:

a restful web services API

and a Python library to access the new API.

Initially, the API will provide access to file and search for bugs, as well as the people and teams systems.

We’ll announce full details of the API and Python library later this week; keep an eye on this blog!

In the mean time, apply to join the Launchpad Beta Testers team if you’d like to take part in the beta.

Closer integration with Bugzilla and Trac

Often, bugs in free software affect more than one project. Launchpad lets projects share the same bug report and comment history so they can worth together on a fix.

Up until now, that’s only been available where each project uses Launchpad as their bug tracker. With Launchpad 2.0, we’re introducing a beta test of two new GPL plugins — one for Bugzilla, one for Trac — that enable projects to share a comment history between the bug as it’s tracked in Launchpad and in external trackers.

If you would like to help beta test the new plugins, let us know.

Simpler page layout and navigation

One of the most obvious changes in Launchpad 2.0 is the web interface’s new design. Our aim has been to simplify the layout and navigation. There’s more in our blog post.

New tour

Want to show someone what Launchpad’s all about? Send them to our new tour!

Other new features that make up Launchpad 2.0

Since our 1.0 launch in April 2007, we’ve introduced many new features that make up Launchpad 2.0, including:

Code review: public discussion and voting on proposed code merges.

public discussion and voting on proposed code merges. Mailing lists for teams .

. Personal package archives: publish Ubuntu packages in your own apt repository.

publish Ubuntu packages in your own apt repository. Atom feeds for bugs, branches and project announcements.

Plus: binary file downloads, improved universal search, translation string search and support for more external bug trackers, amongst other improvements.

As ever, we’d love to hear what you think of our new release. If you come across a problem, please file a bug. Otherwise, send us an email, in particular if there’s something you really want to see in a future Launchpad release.