Backend platform for lean sideproject with advanced tagscheme

Question

I'm an experienced frontend developer (Backbone, Coffeescript) and designer with little to no skills concerning backend stuff. I want to build a sideproject without having to worry about setting up a server or maintaining a database. The project has to be as lean and less timeconsuming as possible but being able to implement some kind of user authentication and an advanced tagscheme will be important.

I'm considering using a backend as a service platform like http://parse.com or http://stackmob.com but still wonder if there are better ways to implement the project I have in mind. Given my description of the situation: Which platform / framework / stack would you recommend?

Answer 1

Full Disclosure - I'm the Platform Evangelist at StackMob ;-)

The project you are describing is a very good fit for what StackMob offers. Our goal is to increase developer productivity. No server setup required and you can create your API from your front-end in a few lines of JavaScript code. Our open source JavaScript SDK is built on top of backbone.js.

Some example code for declaring your model and creating your schema would look like this.

var ToDo = StackMob.Model.extend({schemaName:'todo'});

var todo = new ToDo({action : 'take out the trash'});
todo.create({
  success: function(model){
     // do something
  },
  error: function(error) {
    //alert user of error
  }
});

The create method invokes a RESTful call to StackMob and passes the object. We infer what type of data is passed and create your schema.

StackMob offers the most flexibility among the other players in this space. We support custom-code, so you can write custom business logic in Java, Scala or Clojure, package it as a JAR file and upload it to StackMob servers. Then call the custom method, execute the code and return a JSON response.

We also integrate with Github, so you can auto deploy your HTML5 apps to StackMob servers and remove any need for hosting your app elsewhere.

Let me know if you have more questions about StackMob.