We’re pleased to announce the two latest projects from SitePen Labs: Paver and Persevere!
Paver
Paver exists because of SitePen’s Kevin Dangoor, and his work on the SitePen Support web application. We found that the build tools that exist with Python just aren’t all that easy to use.
Paver is a Python-based build/distribution/deployment scripting tool along the lines of Make or Rake. What makes Paver unique is its integration with commonly used Python libraries. Common tasks that were easy before remain easy. More importantly, dealing with your applications specific needs and requirements is now much easier.
As is the case with most of the things we work on, Paver made our lives easier, and we thought it might be beneficial for you. Currently an alpha release, Paver is available under the BSD license.
Persevere
Persevere on the other hand is a more deliberate approach to rethink how web servers work, and development is lead by SitePen’s Kris Zyp:
The Persevere project is an open source set of tools for persistence and distributed computing using intuitive standards-based JSON interfaces of HTTP REST, JSON-RPC, JSONPath, and HTTP Channels. The core of the Persevere project is the Persevere Server. The Persevere server includes a Persevere JavaScript client, but the standards-based interface is intended to be used with any framework or client.
The Persevere Server is an object storage engine and application server (running on Java/Rhino) that provides persistent data storage of dynamic JSON data in an interactive server side JavaScript environment. It is currently in beta, and boasts a very solid feature set that should interest JavaScript, Dojo and Ajax developers:
- Create, read, update, and delete access to persistent data through a standard JSON HTTP/REST web interface
- Dynamic object persistence – expando objects, arrays, and JavaScript functions can be stored, for extensive JavaScript persistence support
- Remote execution of JavaScript methods on the server through JSON-RPC for a consistent client/server language platform
- Flexible and fast indexed query capability through JSONPath
- Comet-based data monitoring capabilities through HTTP Channels with Bayeux transport plugin/negotiation support
- Data-centric capability-based object level security with user management, Persevere is designed to be accessed securely through Ajax with public-facing sites
- Comprehensive referencing capabilities using JSON referencing, including circular, multiple, lazy, non-lazy, cross-data source, and cross-site referencing for a wide variety of object structures
- Data integrity and validation through JSON Schema
- Class-based data hierarchy – typed objects can have methods, inheritance, class-based querying
- Pluggable data source architectures – SQL tables, XML files, remote web services can be used as data stores
- Service discovery through Service Mapping Description
Comet daily has more information about the recent addition of Comet support to Persevere. Also be sure to check out the Persevere live grid demo.
Persevere is dual-licensed under the BSD and AFL. Visit the SitePen Labs for more information or to download Paver and Persevere.