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Review: Laszlo 2.2

Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) are proving to be the new generation of Web-based applications. Offsetting more logic onto the client side allows for less server load and greater interaction and usability. As this space grows, so does the number of tools providers, giving Java developers something we love: freedom of choice. Laszlo Systems' Laszlo is finding itself at the core of this new development wave.

Introduction

Laszlo is (to my knowledge, at least) the only open source tool out there for developing RIAs using Flash as the client. The process is straightforward, too. You write your applications using familiar tools: XML and JavaScript. The Laszlo Presentation Server, a J2EE application that can be deployed on your J2EE server or used with an enclosed Tomcat container, compiles the client into Flash SWF files that are then served to the client. The Laszlo server will then also cache the SWF files and provide a number of services such as talking to Web services and databases.

Installation and Getting Started

Laszlo can be deployed (at least in theory) on any servlet container that supports 2.2 or higher of the servlet specification. However, it has been certified to run on Apache Tomcat 5.0.24, Mortbay Jetty 4.2.11, IBM Websphere 5.1, and BEA Weblogic 7.0. and 8.0

Note: This depends on the OS, as well. Laszlo Systems' Web site provides a detailed requirements list.

You will also need the following:

Java Runtime Environment (JRE) of 1.4 or higher
175 MB free disk space
512 MB RAM
800 Mhz of processing power

I installed the standalone version that comes with Apache Tomcat for simplicity's sake. It was a breeze. Everything installed and the server was up and running before I had a chance to even finish reading the installation docs. One thing to note: the documentation states that the applications are located at http://localhost:8080/lps-2.1/..., however you will need to change the 2.1 to reflect the current version (now 2.2.1).

Speaking of the documentation, it is fabulous. Seriously, rarely are closed-source applications so well documented, much less open source ones. The documentation, in addition to being well-illustrated and well-written, includes a number of really helpful docs, such as Learn Laszlo in 10 Minutes. So helpful for those like me who want to dive in and make something before diving into the documents and learning a new language.

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