OpenLaszlo - Blog

OpenLaszlo 4.0.3 released

Thu, 26 Jul 2007 17:00:22 -0700

OpenLaszlo 4.0.3 was released to the web today. This is a minor release resolving more than 70 issues reported against OpenLaszlo 4.0.2. Download it here or play with it here (flash runtime) or here here (dhtml runtime).
Full details, including a list of fixed bugs, are available in the Release Notes.
Many of the issues addressed in this release were reported by the OpenLaszlo community, and some of the fixes were contributed by the community. Thanks to everyone who took the time to try out OL4 in SWF or DHTML and report your experiences to the mailing list or forum, and a particularly warm thanks to those of you who filed bugs. This release also has several known bugs in IE7/DHTML, which were discovered just as we were calling the release:

Views clip their contents when opacity changed in IE7 DHTML This an issue with the IE7 renderer. The workaround is to not set the width/height of the container that has alpha (so the view system can resize it to its contents) or set the width/height to be bigger than its contents. See the JIRA bug comments for an example of this workaround, and this msdn article.
LPP-4242 Controls go to disabled state when outer view opacity set in IE7 DHTML
LPP-4244 Mouse handling busted in IE7 DHTML

We have fixes in hand for these bugs, which you can get in the legals nightly builds starting at r5785.
Note that while quality continues to improve, we do not recommend 4.0.3 for use in production environments yet, in part due to the known issues listed above. Release 4.1 is the planned milestone at which we will recommend upgrading production deployments from 3.x.

Please report issues to laszlo-dev, file bugs in JIRA, or post questions in the forums.

June Laszlo Training Classes

Thu, 24 May 2007 14:10:40 -0700

Laszlo is holding developer training classes at our new facility in June 2007. The dates are:

OpenLaszlo Fundamentals
June 7 - 8, 2007 (San Mateo, CA)

Building OpenLaszlo Applications
June 11 - 15, 2007 (San Mateo, CA)

The training classes are an excellent way to get up to speed with OpenLaszlo development. They involve small class sizes, and hands-on coaching from Laszlo instructors.

For more information or to register, please visit the Laszlo Website, or email sales@laszlosystems.com.

San Francisco Developer Meetup

Mon, 21 May 2007 20:57:46 -0700

Please join Laszlo Systems in San Francisco, CA for an evening of pizza, beer and OpenLaszlo development on THURSDAY, MAY 31st from 7:00-9:00 pm. In addition to meeting and mingling with other OpenLaszlo advocates, you will be able to share your own OpenLaszlo success stories and learn the latest Laszlo community news and product advancements.

If you’re not able to make it to San Francisco, please recognize that we will be holding these meetups in various locations across the country. Stay tuned for more details on those as we secure the dates/locations.

WE'RE LOOKING FOR PRESENTERS!
OpenLaszlo Developers: We'd love to catch a glimpse at your latest applications and projects. Each presentation should be technical in nature with a demo included. 10 minute slots will be available from 7:30 pm - onwards, and there will be a projector on site.

COST
Free. Pizza, beer and non-alcoholic drinks will be provided by Laszlo Systems.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND
LZX newbies and seasoned Laszlo veterans alike are welcome.

WHEN AND WHERE
Thursday, May 31, 2007
7:00pm - 9:30pm

CELLspace
2050 Bryant St
San Francisco, CA 94110
(map)

TO SIGN UP
Please register at the following link:
http://www.laszlosystems.com/events/501

OpenLaszlo 4.0.2 Released

Thu, 17 May 2007 14:57:21 -0700

OpenLaszlo 4.0.2 was released to the web today. This is a minor release resolving almost 50 issues reported against OpenLaszlo 4.0.0, and adding a few new features.

Many of the issues addressed in this release were reported by the OpenLaszlo community. Thanks to everyone who took the time to try out OL4 in SWF or DHTML and report your experiences to the mailing list or forum, and a particularly warm thanks to those of you who filed bugs!

As for features, this release contains support for the <html> tag in SWF, so you can embed raw html content inside your OpenLaszlo app from either support runtime. 4.0.2 also includes preliminary support for the SOAP protocol in DHTML.

Full details are available in the Release Notes.

Note that although recommending OL4 for production deployment is our highest priority, we are not yet there with this release. (See here for more.) Your participation, by reporting your OL4 porting experiences, by filing bug reports, and by directly contributing to the platform, will enormously speed up the process.

You may wonder what happened to 4.0.1. Funny story: just as we were putting 4.0.1 to bed, we found a bad regression in the html wrapper code that was causing high CPU load when running the Amazon demo in DHTML. It turned out to be simpler and safer to quietly release 4.0.1 and turn around a 4.0.2 release in 48 hours than to retract 4.0.1 and rebuild it.

OpenLaszlo 4.0 Released

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 11:54:18 -0700

Laszlo Announces Availability of Ajax Runtime

OpenLaszlo 4.0 Sets Industry Standard as First Web Application Development Platform with Cross-Runtime Deployment

SAN MATEO, Calif. and New York, NY (March 20, 2007) – Laszlo Systems, the leading provider of Rich Internet Application (RIA) software, today at the AJAXWorld Conference & Expo East, announced that the latest version of its open source web development platform, OpenLaszlo 4.0, is available for general download at www.openlaszlo.org. OpenLaszlo enables developers to create web-delivered applications that look, feel and act like desktop programs. OpenLaszlo 4.0 is the industry’s first and only RIA platform to support the development and delivery of applications in both Ajax and Flash®, all from a single code base.

“Judging from the quantity of OpenLaszlo 4.0 downloads during the beta period, which are more than double any other release candidate in the company’s history, we are confident that the market is ready and eager for a dependable advanced Ajax solution,” said Jim Grandy, Laszlo’s Director of OpenLaszlo. “With millions of people already touching OpenLaszlo through public websites including those of IBM, Walmart, H&R Block, Monster.com, and Pandora, we expect this new release to only increase the types and number of OpenLaszlo applications available.”

Offered as a free, OSI-certified download to developers, OpenLaszlo is used to build web applications that look, feel and act like desktop software and are accessible through any popular browser. With version 4.0, developers can choose to run OpenLaszlo applications using either Flash or Ajax (natively supported in most browsers), or both. The unique ability of OpenLaszlo to support different runtimes will extend the platform to mobile- and TV-oriented devices in future releases. “By utilizing our runtime independence, enterprises, service providers, and other adopters of OpenLaszlo can be assured that their applications and brands reach the widest possible audience,” said David Temkin, Laszlo’s Co-founder and CTO. “This freedom of deployment was part of our platform architecture from the start, so today marks a significant milestone that will truly set us and our community apart from the competition.”

David Boloker, CTO of Emerging Internet Technology for IBM and primary driver of the OpenAJAX Alliance, added: “OpenLaszlo 4.0 has taken a huge step forward in realizing the vision of combining rich user interfaces with ubiquitous deployment. This announcement will hopefully go far in bringing Ajax to mainstream developers and advancing the new standards-based, platform-agnostic web paradigm.” Downloads and live demonstrations of OpenLaszlo 4.0 applications, along with their source code, are available at www.openlaszlo.org. Laszlo Systems offers a full line of developer training and support services, including subscriptions to the Laszlo Development Network, with individualized developer assistance and other value-added information and tools. More information on developer services and custom solutions from Laszlo Studios can be found at www.laszlosystems.com.

About Laszlo Systems

Laszlo Systems is the leading global provider of Rich Internet Application software. Laszlo is the original developer of OpenLaszlo, which has been widely adopted by application and service providers in the consumer, enterprise, education and government markets. Laszlo Systems provides training and support for OpenLaszlo and offers its own proprietary rich-experience digital life applications such as Laszlo Mail and Laszlo Webtop, built on OpenLaszlo. For more information about San Mateo, Calif.-based Laszlo Systems, visit www.laszlosystems.com.

For more information:

Laszlo Systems
Helena Kimball
(650) 358-2717
hkimball@laszlosystems.com

Laszlo Unveils Laszlo Webtop Early Access Program!

Tue, 06 Feb 2007 16:42:44 -0800

Laszlo Webtop allows you to deliver multiple applications inside an advanced framework and window management system. Coupled with its breakthrough user interface is a corresponding server-based SOA framework that provides advanced data management APIs, manages authentication and single-sign on, and includes other features that make a multi-application webtop a reality.

Based on OpenLaszlo, the leading open source RIA platform, Webtop not only delivers a Cinematic User Experience™ in any browser, but also a complete workspace that consists of multiple components that integrate with each other, and a system to provide extensive visual styling and branding.

The Laszlo Webtop Early Access Program is designed for companies who are actively looking for an advanced Webtop framework to deploy internally or online. If you are interested in participating in this Early Access Program, please visit the Laszlo Webtop page.

Learn More > http://www.laszlosystems.com/software/webtop

Sun and Laszlo Bring OpenLaszlo Applications to Java ME

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 16:42:07 -0700

- Collaboration Brings Laszlo Systems’ Rich Internet Development Platform to Java Technology-enabled Devices -

SANTA CLARA and SAN MATEO, Calif. (October 10, 2006) – Sun Microsystems Inc. (Nasdaq: SUNW), the creator and leading advocate of Java™ technology, and Laszlo Systems, Inc., the original developer of OpenLaszlo, a leading open source rich Internet development platform, today announced a collaboration to enable OpenLaszlo applications to run on devices supporting the Java™ Platform, Micro Edition (Java ME) application. With this move, Sun and Laszlo are actively contributing resources to a new project for the OpenLaszlo community, code-named Orbit.

With more than 3.8 billion Java devices including 1.2 billion Java technology-powered phones in the world today, Sun has one of the most widely distributed client runtime environments. OpenLaszlo is a widely adopted open source application development platform that uses Ajax-style programming techniques, integrating XML and JavaScript™, to create rich and robust online experiences. With this endeavor, Sun and Laszlo will work together to bridge OpenLaszlo’s expressive markup language, LZX, with the ubiquity and power of the Java ME platform.

OpenLaszlo, currently in version 3.3, was designed from its inception to support the instantaneous, no-download deployment of web applications on a diverse set of client runtime environments. Now with further extension to support the Java ME platform, OpenLaszlo will offer an unprecedented level of development portability and flexibility across a wide variety of Java technology-based phones, television set-top boxes, and other connected devices. Support for OpenLaszlo applications further enhances one of the key strengths of the Java platform – the ability to support development environments and authoring tools targeting a broad spectrum of developer skills and preferences.

"The integration of OpenLaszlo and Java ME technology is another important step in the evolution of mobile computing," said Robert Brewin, CTO of Sun Microsystems' software group. "This collaboration will bring the richness of the modern web, the power of Java technology and the unique capabilities of OpenLaszlo together for the benefit of our respective developer communities."

"We’re pleased to be working with Sun, which is a big step forward in furthering our collective vision of enabling seamless application support for all connected devices," said David Temkin, founder and CTO of Laszlo Systems. "With both companies' strong commitment to open source and open standards, today’s announcement marks a significant milestone towards those efforts."

Sun and Laszlo expect to release the first demonstrable Project Orbit application running under the Java ME platform later this year at www.openlaszlo.org. For more information on Project Orbit and its goals, please visit www.java.net or www.openlaszlo.org/orbit. To become a contributor to the Project, registration is available at www.openlaszlo.org/orbit.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.

A singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer" -- guides Sun in the development of technologies that power the world's most important markets. Sun's philosophy of sharing innovation and building communities is at the forefront of the next wave of computing: the Participation Age. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the Web at http://sun.com.

About Laszlo Systems

Laszlo Systems is the original developer of OpenLaszlo, the leading open source platform for building and deploying Web 2.0 applications. OpenLaszlo technology has been widely adopted by application and service providers in the consumer, enterprise, education and government markets. Laszlo Systems provides updates, training and support for OpenLaszlo and offers rich-experience web-based digital life applications such as Laszlo Mail, built on OpenLaszlo.

For more information about San Mateo, Calif.-based Laszlo Systems, visit www.laszlosystems.com.

OpenLaszlo on GlassFish

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 16:30:49 -0700

GlassFish is a "Java EE 5 compatible enterprise-quality Application Server". It's an open source project championed by Sun, we've heard great things about it, and it is compatible with OpenLaszlo!

Check out the details on the Glassfish wiki or in Harpreet Singh's blog.

Released: OpenLaszlo Legals PR4

Mon, 09 Oct 2006 12:16:32 -0700

We are excited to announce availability of the fourth snapshot of OpenLaszlo project "Legals". This snapshot showcases a breakthrough in our effort to bring OpenLaszlo to DHTML: we have many of the original OpenLaszlo Components running in DHTML, enough so that it is now feasible to quickly port existing applications from 3.3.x to Legals.

The PR4 snapshot is available from our Downloads page, or directly from Subversion.

To demonstrate what is possible with this snapshot, we have made available DHTML versions of two longstanding OpenLaszlo applications, Calendar and the Components Sampler. These two, and of course LZPIX, are available in Flash and DHTML from the Demos page. As a testament to how well this is going, the port of Calendar from OpenLaszlo 3.3.3 to Legals required changes to less than one percent of the application code.

Once again, please take a close look at Legals; if you are interested in helping to guide the evolution of the web there is no better place to get involved.

Laszlo Training Classes in September

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 15:07:57 -0700

Laszlo Systems, the sponsor of the OpenLaszlo project, is holding Laszlo Training classes in San Mateo on the following dates:

OpenLaszlo Fundamentals September 14 - 15, 2006

Building OpenLaszlo Applications September 18 - 22, 2006

To book a seat in one of the classes, or for more information, please visit http://www.laszlosystems.com/go/training or call 650 358 2757.

Released: OpenLaszlo Legals PR2

Fri, 04 Aug 2006 10:50:55 -0700

We are pleased to announce that the Legals PR2 snapshot is available at http://www.openlaszlo.org/download. You can try it out at http://labs.openlaszlo.org. The release notes can be found on the OpenLaszlo Download page.

The OpenLaszlo Legals PR2 snapshot represents the current state of the Legals project, the goal of which is to make OpenLaszlo a true multi-runtime environment by supporting DHTML, in addition to SWF.

Legals PR2 improves upon the previous snapshot, Legals PR1, and addresses two visible areas: expanded support for browser platforms (Windows IE 6.0 and Mac OS X Safari 2.0) and improvements to the DHTML developer tools. Specifically, Legals PR2 includes:

Inital support for the LZPIX application running under DHTML in Internet Explorer version 6.0 on Microsoft Windows and running under DHTML in Safari 2.0 on Mac OS X. Try out these new browsers with the LZPIX demo application, which is available on openlaszlo.org. Keep in mind that the performance and functionality is not fully implemented and optimized for IE6 and Safari.
Addition of a DHTML profiler, which is useful for identifying performance problems. You can find a description of the profiler and instructions for using it on the OpenLaszlo wiki Call Profiler page.

In addition, Legals PR2 includes ongoing changes to the OpenLaszlo architecture, making kernels to support the different runtimes and modifying the LFC to use the new architecture. Many of these changes have been discussed on the OpenLaszlo mailing lists, in addition to proposals on the OpenLaszlo wiki and task items in JIRA.

Take a look, a close look at all that is happening, and you will want to get involved. The Legals architecture has opened the door for a true multi-runtime platform that is creating unlimited possibilities. Be a part of it!

Released: OpenLaszlo 3.3.3

Thu, 20 Jul 2006 08:23:42 -0700

We are pleased to announce that OpenLaszlo 3.3.3 is available at http://www.openlaszlo.org/download. OpenLaszlo 3.3.3 is the next fully-qualified point release with supporting documentation in the 3.x series, which supports the Flash runtime only.

OpenLaszlo 3.3.3 addresses two regressions: a media loading problem and the usage of the lzc script compiler. OpenLaszlo 3.3.3 also helps prevent a potential security issue that could arise if you do not follow the recommended guidelines for deploying your application. The issues are summarized here:

LPP-2131: Loading images quickly was causing the media loader to fail. This has been corrected.
LPP-2118: lzc.bat and the lzc script compiler were not running correctly in a standard Windows XP configuration. This has been corrected. In addition, the documentation is incorrect about the directory where it should be run. The correct directory to run lzc is:
/Program Files/OpenLaszlo Server 3.3.3/bin/lzc
Potential security issue: If you deployed a developer's kit, instead of making a deployment package as directed in the Deployers Guide, there was a potential risk that the JSP files used by OpenLaszlo Explorer for remote compilation and source viewing could also be compromised to access the file system. We strongly recommend you follow the deployment instructions. As an added measure of safety, we have fixed all known potential security issues arising from JSP's.

Details can be found in the Release Notes, available at http://www.openlaszlo.org/download.

Released: OpenLaszlo Legals PR1

Fri, 23 Jun 2006 08:47:00 -0700

We are excited to announce that the snapshot release of the OpenLaszlo Legals project is available! The snapshot represents the current state of the Legals project, the goal of which is to make OpenLaszlo a true multi-runtime environment by supporting DHTML, in addition to SWF. See the OpenLaszlo Legals page for more information.

With this snapshot, you can:

Compile and run the LZPIX demo application for both SWF and DHTML with FireFox 1.5 or higher
Download binary builds of the Legals software for all supported platforms (Linux/Unix, MacOS X, Windows XP)
Access the source code using Subversion, such that you can build and use Legals for simple apps

You will find that most existing OpenLaszlo applications targeted for SWF and built in Legals will function reasonably well. As expected in a preview, there are some new bugs resulting from the significant architecture changes underway to support DHTML. You will also find that there is already a significant amount of functionality for DHTML that is supported. See the Release Notes, available from the OpenLaszlo Download page for specific information. Please keep in mind that the APIs used in Legals will change. We do not guarantee compatibility between this snapshot and the final Legals release.

This is your chance to see what is going on in the project and to get involved! We encourage you to try out this snapshot and report bugs that you find using JIRA. Specific details, as to whether something works in DHTML -vs- SWF is very helpful.

Join the community by getting involved in fixing problems, or supporting functionality in DHTML. See Become a Contributor for information on getting involved.

Released: OpenLaszlo 3.3.1

Wed, 07 Jun 2006 07:43:36 -0700

OpenLazlo 3.3.1 is available now. Download it here.

OpenLaszlo 3.3.1 addresses one issue. There was a single regression, which is that the behavior of simplelayout was inadvertantly broken in OpenLaszlo 3.3. In this release, the behavior of simplelayout has been corrected such that it applies only to a single axis.

Press: Laszlo Systems named to the SD Times 100

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 08:07:17 -0700

SD Times 100
4th Annual Awards List Recognizes Top Companies in Software Development Industry

Laszlo Systems, the original developer of OpenLaszlo, the leading advanced open source platform for building and deploying Ajax applications, has been named as one of the 100 leading innovators in software development by the Software Development (SD) Times.

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