

Backlift (YC W12) Launches A Back-End Service For Front-End Developers - dwynings
http://techcrunch.com/2013/04/10/yc-backlift-launch/

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hkarthik
Having been primarily a backend developer for most of my career, I generally
view these services with suspicion.

But the rate of new entries into this space makes me wonder if one day I'll be
considered a luddite for thinking this way.

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swalkergibson
I have had the same reaction. I am not sure what customer pain these services
are addressing. Even if it made prototyping and MVP developing vastly easier,
what happens if the product starts to take off? The lock-in seems dramatic,
but I could be off-base.

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mattyfo
As a UX Designer and front-end guy a lot of the appeal is being able to build
something functional without a lot of help.

You are correct about the taking off part. If any of my ideas were to take off
then I would need to swap out one of these services for an actual back-end.

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swalkergibson
Perhaps it is my own lack of experience with the services themselves, but I
feel like if you are equipped to build out a complete front-end javascript
application, you are probably equally qualified to bang out a little server-
side API that will be suitable for you. Call me old fashioned, but I feel like
this new cottage industry might just be a bridge too far...

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eranation
Was playing with Backlift not too long ago (They have nice Backbone [1] and
AngularJS [2] tutorials using their backend) and it looks promising, but I
haven't got the chance to really do a comparison with Firebase (isn't it also
a YC company?)

What are the differences between Backlift and Firebase (or Parse)? What are
the value add features? What things are done differently / better?

[1] [http://gun.io/blog/Building-Backbone.js-apps-with-
Backlift-V...](http://gun.io/blog/Building-Backbone.js-apps-with-Backlift-
Views-and-Templates/)

[2] <https://blog.backlift.com/entry/angular-tut1>

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pbrumm
We have been using backlift as a teaching aid for an intro to programming
class at the Nashville Software School. It has been a great way to allow the
students to deploy code and test api's without the normal burdens of server
setup or ssh/ftp.

Having the examples in the latest javascript frameworks has also been
extremely helpful in allowing the students to dig further in.

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amccadams
I echo what pbrumm said. As a student at Nashville Software School, I can
attest that using Backlift was a lifesaver. It has allowed us to focus on our
code instead of being bogged down with the server side. Before it came to our
rescue we were spending enormous amounts of time just trying to figure out how
to test our code, after we implemented it we were actually able to make
progress and resume programming.

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greghinch
As someone who spent years as a front-end developer, and now am something more
of a "full stack" developer (I like the title "Product Developer"), I would
_highly_ encourage people who consider themselves front-end to spend some time
learning about things behind the scenes. You'll become an overall better
developer for it.

Not to disparage this service, but I worry that it's just going to encourage a
new generation of folks to never actually learn to actually develop software,
and continue the less than great nature of much JS in the wild.

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colevscode
Hi if you're having trouble creating projects, we apologize. We recently moved
to a build process that pulls packages directly from Github, and unfortunately
that code is acting up. We're working on it.

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safwanc
Thanks for the update. I ran into "unexpected error" when trying to create a
project but they ended up appearing when I refreshed the page. Then somehow I
landed on: <https://test-lozige.backliftapp.com/>

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colevscode
This is an example of a partially downloaded app. There should have been a
bundle of bootstrap stylesheets pulled from github, which didn't make it.

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akrymski
Congrats on launching! We've had to build a lot of this ourselves internally,
and all the time were thinking if there's value in it for others. This is a
very interesting space indeed and I do believe that it's the future. The real
question is - are we too early?)

What you're really are providing is a set of APIs. Perhaps calling it "backend
as a service" actually scares people off, as they don't realize that they can
be using custom server logic as well, and calling it via CORS from backbone.
This is just a bunch of APIs that anyone can use.

I think instead of having a backend, we'll move to an app using a set of APIs
provided by other companies (firebase, sendgrid, backlift, etc) and custom
APIs that may be necessary.

With javascript and CORS it's finally feasible to call remote functions
directly from the cilent, eliminating the need to write boilerplate code for
every app.

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dmbjdane
Back lift is awesome! You can setup a json server in 3 minutes tops. I have
several apps I run off back lift and it is amazing! The developer heard that a
class that I'm in used it and he flew in to talk to us about the app and to
get our feedback. He really cares about his users' experience while using his
material. I can't recommend back lift enough.

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cspriggs
I'm a student currently enrolled in a Web Dev Bootcamp program in
Nashville,TN, learning about all the basics to front end development. We found
ourselves needing to utilize a tool for basic server-side storage for a class
project, and happened upon Backlift. This tool has been perfect for the apps
that we've been building, and it couldn't have been easier to setup and get
running. More impressively, when I found myself needing help with modifying
some of my stored data, the founder himself was eager to help me find a
solution. Great service!

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hansy
Does the opposite exist? Front-end services for back-end developers?

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Floegipoky
Yes, it's called Bootstrap =P

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eterpstra
I think BaaS is a great solution for mobile apps. But as a back-end solution
for traditional web apps, not so much. Eventually their lunch is going to be
eaten by frameworks like Meteor (<http://meteor.com>), or products like
Deployd (<http://deployd.com/>).

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aespinoza
I disagree. Meteor and Deployd can definitely provide an interesting solution
to certain kind of apps, but not all. That is the beauty of the web. This
market is very very new, the best is yet to come in the web arena.

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nemrow
I think this is a fuckin' great idea! I started out as a front-end developer
and I would get discouraged when I couldn't see my work deployed in action.
Wish this was around a few years ago!

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saym
How does Backlift compare to Parse?

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pablasso
It doesn't have anything to do with Parse's business. Visit the link.

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Kiro
How do they solve authentication?

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colevscode
Backlift has an auth api that it uses to establish a user session. As users
create and modify data during their session, backlift checks to ensure that
the user has appropriate permissions. More data is available here:
[http://backlift.github.io/docs/authorization.html#authorizat...](http://backlift.github.io/docs/authorization.html#authorization)

