The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), the all-volunteer developers, stewards, and incubators of nearly 150 Open Source projects and initiatives, today announced Apache Pivot 2.0, the full-featured, Open Source platform for building installable Internet applications (IIAs). Apache Pivot provides a professional-grade foundation for easily building and deploying sophisticated and engaging GUI applications that can be downloaded and installed like traditional desktop or mobile applications.

Apache Pivot combines the enhanced productivity and usability features of a modern user interface toolkit with the power of Java or any other JVM-compatible language, such as JavaScript, Groovy, or Scala.

“With Pivot, developers use the languages, tools, and APIs they already know, thereby reducing technology sprawl and streamlining solution technology stacks,” said Greg Brown, Vice President of Apache Pivot. “It’s a truly open solution for creating visually rich, highly functional desktop or Web-based applications.”

Apache Pivot is used in hundreds of applications across numerous industries, including retail, software, financial services, manufacturing, aerospace, and education, among others. Many of these applications have been developed for international use as well, as one of the key benefits of using Apache Pivot is ease of localization.

Apache Pivot 2.0 features a number of significant enhancements that include:
• Dynamic data binding – properties of target elements are automatically updated whenever a source value changes;
• Support for named styles – CSS-like style classes are supported, including both typed and untyped style selectors;
• Support for SVG images in addition to standard bitmap-based images (such as JPEG, PNG, or GIF)
• Overhauled TextArea component – includes word navigation. undo/redo, and improved cut/paste behavior;
• Additional color schemes optimized for a variety of popular desktop environments;
• Serializer events – applications can now be notified as structured content such as JSON, XML, or CSV is read from an input stream;
• Eclipse launcher – an Eclipse plugin helps simplify creating launch configurations for Pivot applications.

Oversight and Availability
Apache Pivot is available under the Apache Software License v2.0, and is overseen by a Project Management Committee (PMC), who guide its day-to-day operations, including community development and product releases.