The Apache Software Foundation (ASF) has announced the graduation of Apache Pivot as a Top-Level Project (TLP), signifying that the Project's community and products have been well-governed under the ASF's meritocratic process and principles. In addition, the Project announced the release of Apache Pivot 1.4, the fourth update since joining the Apache Incubator in January 2009.

Apache Pivot is a platform for building rich Internet applications (RIAs) in Java. It combines the enhanced productivity and usability features of a modern RIA toolkit with the robustness of the industry-standard Java platform. Pivot provides a foundation upon which sophisticated and engaging applications can be easily built and deployed over the Web. Because Pivot applications are written in Java, they can take full advantage of the comprehensive feature set and extensive industry support of the Java platform.

"Users have much higher expectations for Web applications now than they did 10 years ago," said Greg Brown, Chair of the Apache Pivot Project Management Committee (PMC) and Principal Consultant at Cantina Consulting. "This is why we're seeing tools like Flex and Silverlight beginning to gain traction; however, both of these require developers who are otherwise happy using Java to switch technologies. Pivot is an attempt to create a modern, rich client development platform in Java."

Pivot provides a comprehensive set of standard user interface elements ranging from simple buttons to editable tree and table controls. It also includes a number of features that significantly simplify development of modern GUI applications, including an XML markup language for declaring the structure of a user interface, data binding, animated effects and transitions, and Web services integration.