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Comment by aespinoza | Hacker News Reader

Have you looked at Backend as a Service providers? What a BaaS platform provides is a way to avoid writing a lot of the server-side code. Which might be what you are looking for.

We are currently in beta testing right now. You might want to check it out:

* iKnode (http://iknode.com)

If you like an invite, just signup here: http://iknode.com/register/

If what iKnode offer doesn't match what you are looking for, don't dismiss the idea of a Backend as a Service just yet. Try the following as well:

* Parse (http://parse.com)

* Kinvey (http://kinvey.com)

* Stackmob (http://stackmob.com)

Among others...

EDIT: Fixed the Kinvey Link.

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I would love to see a BaaS that have a visual interface and supported a work-flow. Somewhere between a rules engine, a workflow diagram and a object diagram, where scripts (my preference a Lisp, but I don't see why a variety of languages could not be supported) could be inserted into the workflow.

For a good deal of small mobile apps and simple web apps this would be a great tool for modeling simple CRUD workflows. I have several apps that this would be great for where 90% of it is just save and retrieve data where the other 10% need transforms or business logic, hence being able to place small transform scripts in the workflow. Now granted it's not going to scale to an enterprise solution, but there would be a lot of value to being able to stand a back-end up in a few hours by diagramming it out. I think of it as kind of like BPEL for REST services. If it existed I would pay for it, and I can't imagine that I am the only one.

Ah, that seems to be pretty much what I am after. There seems to be a definite slant towards mobile backends though, but that is the place to be I suppose.

I've signed up for iknode - it would be great to check it out!

Thank you for checking it out. If you have any questions please don't hesitate to contact me.

Technically if it relies on HTTP symantics like REST or JSON-RPC a JavaScript client can consume it just as easily. They probably market to mobile more heavily because that is a hot market but generally mobile and JavaScript clients rely on the same back end, which is usually some form of REST, JSON-RPC, document literal XML or SOAP, the last two being less common.

Yes I know. Parse and Kinvey are extremely focused on Mobile right now, even thought their technology could easily be used in Web apps. They use REST and JSON just like we do.

In the case of iKnode, we are focusing mostly on web sites. I have to be honest. We don't particularly like the mobile environment so much, specially because it feels like a step backwards for standards. We believe firmly in the Web. So we do support mobile environments, but we are pushing for the web to be successful. Even if mobile is hot right now.

Having LOTS of fun with StackMob. They are great. Support team is wonderful and documentation is plentiful (usually)

aespinoza, good luck in your endeavors!

Thanks I really appreciate it.

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