Lift picking up momentum

Lift a Web Framework [1], is receiving more attention, growing a commercial user base and gaining momentum. In the May/June 2009 Edition of the IEEE Internet Computing [2] journal Steve Vinoski [3] publishes an article "Scala and Lift - Functional Recipes for the Web" [4] in his column "The Functional Web".

In describing the article he explains, "Lift is a framework implemented on Scala’s functional features. The Scala language offers functional programming features and asynchronous message-passing concurrency alongside a statically typed model. Lift exploits this model to offer secure, higher-level abstractions to Web developers."

In concluding the article, which he co-authored with Debasish Ghosh [5], they talk of "the power and utility of both Scala and Lift" and "encourage you to explore the references for more information", a serious recommendation to go try it.

Only a short while ago John K Waters published an article, Open Source Project Gives Java Devs a 'Lift' [6] on Application Development Trends [7].

Now Michel Galpin [8], a Software Architect at ebay, has provided a tutorial [9] on Lift, available as a pdf [10], on the IBM Developer Works site to help people get started. He says about Lift.

"Lift's excellent 'Comet made easy' philosophy made it an absolute no-brainer as the choice of framework for the Apache ESME project. Additionally, the fact that Lift-based applications run unchanged on the SAP's NetWeaver CE Java application server makes this an intriguing approach for enterprise applications in the SAP world"

Dave Pollak, Lifts creator has become a popular speaker. You can hear him talk about Lift at

• JavaOne [11] presenting "Lift: The best way to create rich Internet applications in Scala" [12] (BOF-3820), June 2
• ScalaLiftOff [13] in San Fransisco on Saturday June 6 where you can meet him in an unconference.
• Open Bridge Conference "Introduction to Lift" [14], June 17–19, 2009, Portland, Oregon

For developers, there is now a book "Exploring Lift" [15] by Derek Chen-Becker, Tyler Weir and Marius Danciu, available from Apress [16] that gives you all the implementation information you need to create a rich Web application in record time.

It appears developing web sites has never been easier.