[Lift] Newbie Q: Lift suitable as webgui for java 6 app with embedded webserver and no database ?
Hi All, I am considering if Lift might be a good solution for implementing a web gui frontend for a java 6 application which among other things has an embedded web server with HTTP/HTTPS support. When the application is launced the webserver can be started so that the web gui can be accessed using a browser by the user (incl. the capability to shutdown/ restart the app from the web gui). The application does not include a database and saves it's state on the local disk itself. Being familiar with RoR, I did try the scenario first using Rails +Jruby and while it worked I had to abandon it as Rails boot turned out the be too slow for the users (Rails boot took 30s). Also the Rails JRuby/integration was tricky and I had to do considerable coding to support consistent, MT-safe start/shutdown/cancel, reporting boot progress, error handling etc. So NO, Rails was not a good idea here! How suited would Lift be for this scenario or to be more precise: a) Is a lift web app as fast to startup as a normal jave jsp/servlet app ? b) Can lift be used without a database and can the relate code such as the OR mapped be omitted ? c) Any special considerations needed when starting and stopping an embedded lift web app ? d) What does lift require of the java web server ? I.e. can some of the more lightweight java web servers be used that might not support the full servlet/jsp specifications such as the embedded HTTP server in Java 6, Winstone, Grizzly etc.? ... What (light) java webservers are lift known to work with ? e) What would the best way for the lift web app to communicate with the backend code of the java app ? By just calling into the existing java code (some integration/classloader issues here?) or more loosely by calling REST WS Api exposed by the Java code ? f) I am using ANT and not maven to develop the java app. Will be able to make Lift work with ANT so I use the same build tool for everything? g) What version of lift should I use ? In particular does Lift 2.0 change anything for my scenario ? Thanks Morten -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Lift group. To post to this group, send email to lift...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to liftweb+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/liftweb?hl=en.
Re: [Lift] Newbie Q: Lift suitable as webgui for java 6 app with embedded webserver and no database ?
mortench morte...@gmail.com writes: Hi All, [...] How suited would Lift be for this scenario or to be more precise: a) Is a lift web app as fast to startup as a normal jave jsp/servlet app ? Depends mostly on your own code. If you have an empty Boot, startup is 1s. b) Can lift be used without a database and can the relate code such as the OR mapped be omitted ? Yes c) Any special considerations needed when starting and stopping an embedded lift web app ? Dunno :-) d) What does lift require of the java web server ? I.e. can some of the more lightweight java web servers be used that might not support the full servlet/jsp specifications such as the embedded HTTP server in Java 6, Winstone, Grizzly etc.? ... What (light) java webservers are lift known to work with ? You need a recent servlet implementation. JSP is not needed. I'm using Jetty although not embedded, but Jetty seems like it should easily be embedded. During development, I launch a small Scala app that starts jetty (the RunWebApp class generated by the Lift archetype) e) What would the best way for the lift web app to communicate with the backend code of the java app ? By just calling into the existing java code (some integration/classloader issues here?) or more loosely by calling REST WS Api exposed by the Java code ? Not sure what you envision here, but REST and loosely coupled should work :-) f) I am using ANT and not maven to develop the java app. Will be able to make Lift work with ANT so I use the same build tool for everything? Yes, but you're probably on your own g) What version of lift should I use ? In particular does Lift 2.0 change anything for my scenario ? You should use the latest 2.0-SNAPSHOT or milestone (M3 is just around the corner) /Jeppe -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Lift group. To post to this group, send email to lift...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to liftweb+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/liftweb?hl=en.
Re: [Lift] Newbie Q: Lift suitable as webgui for java 6 app with embedded webserver and no database ?
Jeppe gave a great answer. Just to reinforce that Lift's webkit is totally agnostic to the data being presented. As long as that data can be materialized as instances of objects in the JVM, you can use Lift. On Mon, Mar 1, 2010 at 4:54 AM, Jeppe Nejsum Madsen je...@ingolfs.dkwrote: mortench morte...@gmail.com writes: Hi All, [...] How suited would Lift be for this scenario or to be more precise: a) Is a lift web app as fast to startup as a normal jave jsp/servlet app ? Depends mostly on your own code. If you have an empty Boot, startup is 1s. b) Can lift be used without a database and can the relate code such as the OR mapped be omitted ? Yes c) Any special considerations needed when starting and stopping an embedded lift web app ? Dunno :-) d) What does lift require of the java web server ? I.e. can some of the more lightweight java web servers be used that might not support the full servlet/jsp specifications such as the embedded HTTP server in Java 6, Winstone, Grizzly etc.? ... What (light) java webservers are lift known to work with ? You need a recent servlet implementation. Lift needs Servlet 2.5 or higher. JSP is not needed. I'm using Jetty although not embedded, but Jetty seems like it should easily be embedded. During development, I launch a small Scala app that starts jetty (the RunWebApp class generated by the Lift archetype) e) What would the best way for the lift web app to communicate with the backend code of the java app ? By just calling into the existing java code (some integration/classloader issues here?) or more loosely by calling REST WS Api exposed by the Java code ? Not sure what you envision here, but REST and loosely coupled should work :-) Given that Scala works perfectly calling Java code, I'd go with calling your Java classes directly. f) I am using ANT and not maven to develop the java app. Will be able to make Lift work with ANT so I use the same build tool for everything? Yes, but you're probably on your own g) What version of lift should I use ? In particular does Lift 2.0 change anything for my scenario ? You should use the latest 2.0-SNAPSHOT or milestone (M3 is just around the corner) /Jeppe -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Lift group. To post to this group, send email to lift...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to liftweb+unsubscr...@googlegroups.comliftweb%2bunsubscr...@googlegroups.com . For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/liftweb?hl=en. -- Lift, the simply functional web framework http://liftweb.net Beginning Scala http://www.apress.com/book/view/1430219890 Follow me: http://twitter.com/dpp Surf the harmonics -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups Lift group. To post to this group, send email to lift...@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to liftweb+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/liftweb?hl=en.
