LZProject was released yesterday on the OpenLaszlo site. (See LZProject). It’s a “blueprint” application, i.e. a complete, functioning application that’s designed to educate developers as to how to architect OpenLaszlo applications. LZProject is a project management/task-tracking Rich Internet Application (RIA) written in OpenLaszlo. It compiles to both DHTML and Flash.
From an educational perspective, it shows developers how to do the following using OpenLaszlo:
- Plan both the overall and client-side architectures of an application.
- Deal with multiple “screens”.
- Handle authentication.
- Perform typical CRUD (Create, Update and Delete) operations on a variety of data.
- Internationalization (I8n) – LZProject can be viewed in English, German and Korean. All the labels and messaging are controlled by the server.
- Client and server validation.
The application was designed and written by Raju Bitter, OpenLaszlo’s Developer Community Manager. I’ve wanted to introduce Raju for some time, and this application gives me the perfect opportunity. Before joining Laszlo Systems, Raju operated a consultancy specializing in OpenLaszlo RIA development, so his experience in practical OpenLaszlo development was critical to this project. (Read Raju’s Blog).
The project page is probably the best starting place. It links to running copies of the application, a white paper, and of course the LZX and Java source code.
LZProject really does cover all the frequently-asked, complex, how-to questions. I think it will prove to be an excellent resource for developers looking for the “big picture” in OpenLaszlo.