Lasso Developer 8.5

The tip of the week for May 4, 2007 introduces Lasso Developer 8.5 which allows you to develop, demonstrate, debug, and in some cases deploy Lasso solutions for free.

Introduction

This tip describes Lasso Developer 8.5 which is the new, free solution from LassoSoft for developing Lasso powered sites on your desktop machine or laptop. Lasso Developer 8.5 is much more than an extended evaluation for Lasso Professional 8.5.

Lasso Developer 8.5 can be used to demonstrate new Web sites to clients or to your boss without purchasing a deployment license for Lasso Professional 8.5. Lasso Developer 8.5 can be used to debug Web sites locally, either alone or in concert with Lasso Studio for Eclipse. And, in some cases Lasso Developer 8.5 can even be used to deploy Web sites which will be accessed by a single user or a small workgroup.

This tip describes some different uses for Lasso Developer 8.5. The end of the tip includes instructions for downloading, installing, and getting started with Lasso Developer 8.5.

Develop

Lasso Developer 8.5 is designed to be installed on your desktop machine or laptop. Developing Lasso powered solutions on your personal computer has several advantages over developing on your deployment Web server.

Any issues you encounter while developing your Web site are only seen by yourself. This allows you to try out several different variations and to fine tune the site visitor's experience before you allow your client, or boss, to see the Web site. Any syntax errors which you encounter while developing your Web site can be corrected before you demonstrate the site to others.

Lasso Developer 8.5 can be used either as a full blown development environment where you replicate your deployment Web server as closely as possible. Or, it can be used as a scratchpad where you try out ideas and individual pages before making changes to the deployment server.

Demonstrate

Since Lasso Developer 8.5 allows up to five IP addresses to connect, you can use it to demonstrate Web sites to your clients or your boss.

For example, if you are pitching a new Web site to a client you can set up a server using Lasso Developer 8.5 and allow them to test the Web site for as long as they need. This allows you to complete the development of the Web site, but delay the purchase of deployment software until the site is actually deployed.

If you need more than five IP addresses you can request a 30-day evaluation from LassoSoft. Key team members can test the Web site using the five IP addresses which Lasso Developer 8.5 allows. Then, before you deploy the site, you can have the whole team test the site and perform load testing using an evaluation license.

You can request an evaluation serial number here:

Debug

Lasso Developer 8.5 provides an excellent way to debug a Web site. It can be used during the development of a Web site, but can also be very useful for debugging a deployed Web site.

Install Lasso Developer 8.5 on your local machine and download the Web site's files and settings. After replicating the environment of the Web site on the local machine through Lasso Developer you can perform extended debugging of the site. Any changes which you need to make can be uploaded to the deployment server.

Lasso Studio for Eclipse is an excellent adjunct to Lasso Developer. Lasso Studio for Eclipse includes an interactive debugger which allows you to go step by step through your Lasso pages. Lasso Studio for Eclipse also includes an automatic syntax checker, code formatting options, code templates, and more.

You can find out more about Lasso Studio for Eclipse here.

Deploy

Lasso Developer 8.5 can even be used to deploy Web sites in some cases. If you design a Web site which will be used by a single user or a small work group then you can deploy it in their office using Lasso Developer 8.5.

For example, you might design an administration application for a Web site through Lasso. That administration application could be installed on each user's machine using Lasso Developer 8.5 and communicate to the main Web site through a shared data source or other means.

Lasso Developer 8.5 can only be used to deploy Web sites which will be accessed by one to five site visitors. Lasso Professional 8.5 is LassoSoft's deployment product. Lasso Professional 8.5 has all the same features of Lasso Developer 8.5, but with no limitations on the number of IP addresses which can connect.

You can find more information about Lasso Professional 8.5 here.

Installation

Installing Lasso Developer 8.5 on your local machine is easy. Use the Lasso Professional 8.5 installer and select the "Lasso Developer" option when you initialize Lasso.

You can download Lasso Developer 8.5 from here by selecting the latest "Lasso_Pro_8.5.x" download for your platform:

You can access the local Web server using the special domain name "localhost" or the loopback IP address "127.0.0.1". You can also often use a local name like "mycomputer.local" or your local IP address e.g. "192.168.0.2". See the setup screens for your Web server for more details.

All Mac OS X installations include Apache 1.3 Personal Web Sharing which can be activated in the Sharing system preferences. The default Web server root is located in /Library/WebServer/Documents. For development purposes this is often sufficient. Either use sub-folders to segregate projects or swap out projects when you work on different sites.

Windows XP Pro includes Microsoft's IIS Web server as an optional installation. There is an option to include it when you first install Windows or you can add it later using the "Add or Remove Programs" control panel and the "Add/Remove Windows Components" option. You will need your Windows XP Pro install disc. The default Web server root is located in C:Inetpubwwwroot. For development purposes this is often sufficient. Either use sub-folders to segregate projects or swap out projects when you work on different sites.

Red Hat Linux includes Apache 2.0 by default. You can activate the Web server by accessing the Application menu and selecting System Settings > Server Settings > HTTP. The default Web server root is located in /var/www/html/. For development purposes this is often sufficient. Either use sub-folders to segregate projects or swap out projects when you work on different sites.

Note - Apache 2.0 can also be installed on either Mac OS X or Windows XP. For Windows XP in particular this can be a low cost alternative to upgrading to Windows XP Pro.

Author: Fletcher Sandbeck
Created: 4 May 2007
Last Modified: 16 Mar 2011