OpenLaszlo 4.6.x

Quick update - Laszlo 4.6.x is out and brings some welcome changes.

I had written about OpenLaszlo sometime back - and mentioned some glaring issues around things like authentication. Basically these arose out of the way Laszlo handles http connections - the server acts as an intermediary or proxy for all data including cookies. For some reason, cookies were not working for me before 4.6.0 and as such neither was cookie based authentication. With 4.6.0 I'm happy to say all of this working fine and removes an important reason for me to reject OpenLaszlo in my work.

Another very important achievement from my perspective at least is the seamless rendering of pure DHTML pages as opposed to Flash. This version finally delivers on the promise of write once and deliver to multiple platforms and the timing is just right. I could now write the GUI once and deliver to devices like the iPhone (which don't support Flash) without any extra effort. This is a significant advantage over Flex - while Flex gives you a lot of benefits within the Flash eco-system, I would've been lost had I developed my UI using it. Another really nice side-effect of the DHTML rendering is that you can take advantage of some of the really cool Javascript libraries out there to enhance your product on the fly.

In the DHTML render mode the application is rendered as pure HTML. This made it possible for me to add dynamically rendered virtual keyboards for example. Of course this meant the required Javascript had to be dynamically injected using Sitemesh, but that again was a great tool for the job - simple but really effective. And then there was of course JQuery to tie it all together on the client side...

Look up the technologies used - collectively or even singly they could save you a ton of worry someday:
* JQuery
* Sitemesh
* Javascript Virtual KeyBoard Interface by Greywyvern

OpenLaszlo

OpenLaszlo has some of the most striking examples of cinematic UIs on the web today with some of the most promising technological premises I have seen. I just wanted to put out what I see as the most significant differentiators for OpenLaszlo from other RIA technologies...

Unlike its most potent competitor Flex, OpenLaszlo is not strictly tied down to Flash. The important thing to realize about OpenLaszlo is that it is an XML based UI description language with a dynamic rendering engine that is plug-able. This means that while currently there is mature and capable Flash based engine and a slighty less capable HTML+DHTML aka AJAX engine, these are not the only ones possible(Silverlight?). This, together with its fairly mature data manipulation capabilities, very complete widget library, good documentation and user community size - makes it one of the best candidates for developing attractive UIs quickly.

A problem that I saw though was that there seemed to be some significant problems around seemingly crucial areas - e.g. with SOAP based interactions, debugging in Javascript mode, file uploading, authentication etc for which there seemed to be no authoritative solutions. These are important for any serious real-world applications and OpenLaszlo needs to put out firm recommendations, solutions etc that will keep developers from bouncing around the internet.

All-in-all, this is a really neat open-source alternative to an Adobe based platform leading to the advantages of Flash and AJAX - I look forward to positive changes in this area...