Mobile Backend as a Service enables rapid application development by providing key backend services out of the box. All easily configurable, secured and exposed with REST endpoints.
LiveOak provides storage service, currently based on MongoDB. However, we plan to support other databases and NoSQL solutions as well in the future. It’s exposed through REST endpoints and provides access to rich query capabilities. Applications can use subscriptions based on WebSockets (or native mobile push, see below) to get notifications about updates to content in storage services.
Here’s a good example of how easy it is to create a simple application by leveraging storage and subscriptions with LiveOak:
Security is another key aspect of a BaaS solution. LiveOak integrates and embeds Keycloak. Keycloak is a fully fledged authentication and authorization server built on top of OAuth2 and JSON Web Token (JWT) specifications. LiveOak also provides a flexible policy framework, with built in URL and ACL based policies to cover most use-cases. This makes it easy to secure REST endpoints out of the box, and also provides extensibility if needed.
In order to support native push capabilities across different mobile platforms, such as iOS and Android, LiveOak integrates AeroGear’s UnifiedPush Server (UPS). Through UPS developers are able to configure, and register mobile applications, route and filter the sending of native push messages using a fully REST based API, its native SDKs, and their Cordova plugin. The UPS also has its own administrative console that integrates Keycloak. Look for more integration with AeroGear in the future as well.
Important aspect of LiveOak is that everything is exposed as proper REST endpoints. We aim to provide developers with clean and well thought out APIs.
On top of all of this we provide a powerful and extensive Management Console UI. It was designed from the ground up with usability in mind. However you are not forced to use it. We aim to expose all management operations via a proper REST API.
First of all check out our website. You can find several screencasts, getting started guide there.
LiveOak also comes with few example applications that can be quickly tried out. We have a simple chat application, our own variant of the well known TodoMVC application and a gallery application showing binary storage capabilities. All of these are also available as Android applications - either native or Cordova.
Android chat client deserves a special mention as it demonstrates integration with AeroGear Unified Push Server to receive native push notifications.
We have plenty of ideas. A few key ones:
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Custom business logic.
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More storage options
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API usage metrics and basic analytics
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Many new Management Console capabilities
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SDKs and tooling
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Better provisioning and automation …
Please download it and try it out, then go to our community page, subscribe to the mailing list and share your feedback!