OpenLaszlo Development

OpenLaszlo is a web application development environment designed for developing Rich Internet Applications (RIAs). RIAs are web apps that have highly developed user interfaces, where the requirements for interactivity may go beyond the standard HTML form style interaction. OpenLaszlo is an open source framework which simplifies development of flash applications. OpenLaszlo allows you to code your flash apps using xml style Laszlo code, and thereafter you can compile your code to output a .swf file for production usage. Programs in OpenLaszlo are written in XML style syntax and it offers multiple ways of deploying applications in both Adobe Flash and DHTML formats. The possibilities for integrating OpenLaszlo applications with other server side technologies and the overall sophistication of the architecture make it an excellent contender for use in web systems that require advanced user interface features. OpenLaszlo makes it simple to provide dynamic user interface features, which would allow for example customizable interfaces.

The OpenLaszlo feature that makes it stand out from other development platforms is its output; that is, the current version of OpenLaszlo can spit out Flash or DHTML. OpenLaszlo applications are written in XML in a language called LZX.

LZX compiles any of several runtime targets, including Flash 7, Flash 8, and native browser JavaScript (which runs within a standard browser with JavaScript support). The Flash 7/8 option generates a Flash file (swf) to run in the Flash player that runs within a Web browser.

Applications developed on OpenLaszlo provide a dramatically improved online user experience featuring advanced interfaces delivered on a single Web page. By bringing true application behavior to the Web, OpenLaszlo makes a new generation of online communications, commerce and content services viable for the first time.

Depending on requirements, OpenLaszlo applications can be deployed either SOLO (Standalone OpenLaszlo Output) or from the OpenLaszlo Server. SOLO deployment supports most use cases and works from any HTTP Web server. OpenLaszlo Server deployment supports additional data integration options, persistent connections and run-time media transcoding. The OpenLaszlo server is Java-based and works with leading J2EE application servers and Java Servlet Containers. OpenLaszlo's standards-based architecture delivers exceptional reliability and scalability, proven in deployments serving millions of users to date.

Benefits:

• Develop standards-based rich Internet Applications that support any web browser with a single code base in XML and JavaScript
• Deploy them from any HTTP Web server in SOLO mode, or from a J2EE application server or Java servlet container running the OpenLaszlo Server under Linux, UNIX, Windows or Mac OS X
• Display them in any Web browser enabled with the Flash 6 Player or above, reaching 96% of all Web-enabled desktops