Ide ..

[d~l]

Newcomer here.

I have only recently found Laszlo and I'm just beginning to learn the development environment.

Reading through the forum it seems that there is still a need for an integrated development environment (IDE).

This thread I've read ..

http://www.laszlosystems.com/developers/community/forums/showthread.php?threadid=751

explains how to setup Eclipse and XMLBuddy for script validation .. but it does not appear to offer preview of script running on the localhost server.

I've experimented in setting up a (free) script editor for validating Laszlo scripts in web browser .. switching between Edit & Preview to view the content running on local server. This works nicely.

If this of interest I can post the setup configuration here. I'm not sure if this is covered elsewhere.

Any Laszlo GUI's around .. other than Dreamweaver?

[antun]

Welcome!

By all means post the setup configuration here. Is it for PC/Mac?

-Antun

[d~l]

I'm afraid this setup I am experimenting with for script editing/previewing is only for PC Windows.

But (as a past Mac user) I would hazard a guess that BBEdit from

http://www.barebones.com/support/bbedit/updates.shtml

might be adapted to setup a similar edit/preview configuration (including plugins).

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Summary (PC setup)

Uses HTML Kit as the Laszlo editor/preview platform.

Assumptions:

Laszlo installed in: C:\Program Files\Laszlo Presentation Server 2.1.2\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.12\webapps\lps-2.1.2\my-apps\

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Downloads:-

(1) Download and instal .. HTML-Kit free editor .. from .. http://www.chami.com/html-kit/support/docs/pages/h000122.html

(2) After installation .. go to Toolbar .. Edit | Preferences | Preview | Edit Preview Rules ..

under "Path to Server Mappings" set the following .. to Laszlo my-apps root directory

file path:-
C:\Program Files\Laszlo Presentation Server 2.1.2\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.12\webapps\lps-2.1.2\my-apps\

server address:-
http://localhost:8080/lps-2.1.2/my-apps/

(Note: there is one restriction with this window; once entered these mappings cannot be edited in situ.
So to change any mappings you will need to delete the entry and insert a new entry.
i.e. carefully check syntax in notepad before pasting into the text fields).

(3) create a hello_world.lzx file to go in Templates ..

File | New | All tab .. Blank Text File


type in

<canvas>
<text>Hello World!</text>
</canvas>


File | Save As Extra | Save As Template

Title: Laszlo File
Description: Hello World!
Author: Section: User


close the editor window


(4) Now go to HTML-Kit toolbar again .. File | New | User .. and select the newly created Laszlo hello_world.lzx template ..

save as ...

File name: hello_world.lzx (make sure you add the *.lzx extension instead of *.txt)

Save as type: All Files (*.*)

in root directory ..

C:\Program Files\Laszlo Presentation Server 2.1.2\jakarta-tomcat-4.1.12\webapps\lps-2.1.2\my-apps\


(5) Now to deploy ..

first ensure that you have launched Tomcat server

now look at the toolbar at the bottom of the hello_world.lzx window

there are four tabs

Editor | Preview | Output | Split View


Click on the Preview tab .. and after a while you should see

Hello World!

in the browser .. and underneath the Lazslo tool bar

Tasks ..
Resources ..

(6) Now you can alternate between Editor mode and Preview mode, allowing you to edit the script in Editor Mode and then Preview in browser .. running *.lzx on localhost server.


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View Laszlo Reference Manuals

(7) Now we can use the "split window" feature in HTML-Kit. to display user manuals (in one window) and developing Laszlo script (in second window).

Open a second window using hello_world.lzx (it can be any *.lzx file)

There should now be two files open .. probably cascaded.

At this point .. go to Window | Tile Vertically .. to create two adjacent panes.

(8) In one of the open windows .. click on Preview .. and Hello World! will display .. but we only require to access the Laszlo documents.

So .. go to the Laszlo Panel below the Hello World! display ..

Resources .. and click on Developer Network button.

Now you have in one of the browser windows the Laszlo standard home page .. and you can navigate to Laszlo documents.

(9) Go to the other open window .. *.lzx .. and you can now copy scripts from the Laszlo documents window and paste into the other window .. and then immediately preview results.


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Other Developments.

(10) HTML-Kit can be used to save Laszlo snippets.

File | Save as Extra | Save as Snippet


(11) XML can be validated using HTML XML Plugin


(12) HTML Kit Plugin's can be designed to insert Laszlo scripts (in fact I have developed one).
But it seems easier to just refer to the Laszlo Reference in one of the two windows, since this is the reference document.

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Designing Art Assets

(13) A very useful tool for designing components .. RealDraw Pro from http://www.mediachance.com

There is a built in HTML splitter which allows the design of a window to be split into different images.

Also vectors can be exported.

(14) Paint Shop Pro also has an image splitter functionality .. more precise to setup.

(15) To convert the split images into swf files .. use JPEG2SWF.exe
available from http://www.quiss.org/swftools/win32/

run JPEG2SWF.exe in same directory as the split graphics (when designing new skins for windows).

(16) Inkscape.org is another useful (and free) graphics tool.


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Experimenting now with Laszlo + SWF + SVG .. integrated objects ..

(17) Laszlo objects can freely be mixed with swf objects .. and svg objects.

For further experiments with SVG the Adobe SVG viewer will be needed.

from here .. http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html

.. more here on SVG .. http://www.w3.org/Graphics/SVG/

Laszlo and SVG objects can inter-communicate via javascript.

SVG objects can be created using SVG editors and embedded (using HTML wrapper for *.lzx and *.svg files). Tested this and it works fine.

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DL

[Jerinaw]

http://www.spket.com/laszlo.html