Lasso 35
Volume Number: 15
Issue Number: 12
Column Tag: Web Development
Lasso 3.5
by William Porter, Polytrope Solutions, Houston, Texas
The leading tool for Web-publishing FileMaker
databases extends its reach
The Lasso Web Data Engine from Blue World Communications (henceforth simply
"Lasso") started life several years ago as a product that made it possible to publish and
manage FileMaker Pro databases on the World Wide Web. Originally, it worked only
with FileMaker and only on the Mac, even after FileMaker went cross-platform three
years ago.
Lasso is still the premier tool on the Mac for Web-enabling FileMaker databases, but
it has expanded its reach considerably. In fall 1998, with the release of version 3,
Lasso not only broke out of the Mac OS and expanded into the Windows world; it also
grew beyond FileMaker, by adding support for any ODBC-compliant data source. And
by enriching its tag-based programming language, LDML, Lasso matured into a tool
that can do a lot more than display a product list online. It is now used increasingly to
power dynamic Web sites whose HTML pages are generated from a database that the
user may never even be aware of. In fact, Lasso can do a lot to enhance Web sites in
which no database is involved at all.
Lasso 3.5, released in late spring 1999, is not the feature-packed breakthrough that
the previous version had been. Instead, 3.5 consolidates the earlier advances (adding
expanded Windows support, for example, and strengthening security), adds a handful
of powerful advanced features (such as support for server-side JavaScript and XML),
and expands the product line with a variety of new features, including the Lasso
Developer Edition. The release of FileMaker Pro 5 almost six months later (October
1999) made it easier than ever for inexperienced users to get their data online in a
hurry. Nevertheless, Lasso is not a product for Web neophytes looking for quick
solutions to simple problems, and the release of FileMaker 5 is unlikely to draw a
single serious developer away from Lasso.
This review article is addressed not to developers who are already using Lasso, but to
users who are wondering if they should give Lasso 3.5 a try. The short answer is yes.
Since I am a FileMaker developer, most of my examples refer to FileMaker Pro
databases. But if you work with an ODBC-compliant data source such as Microsoft
Access (Windows only) or SNAP Innovations' PrimeBase, nothing said here is
irrelevant to your concerns, since Lasso's ODBC module works very much like its
FileMaker Pro counterpart. (The differences are mainly terminological.) In order to
tackle Lasso, you do not need to have an advanced programming background, but you
should be familiar with programming or scripting concepts, and you must know HTML
pretty well.
The code examples given in this article come from a simple site whose full source code
can be downloaded from the Polytrope Solutions Web site:
<http://www.polytrope.com/mactechreview>.
What the Heck Is It? How Does It Work?
Lasso inhabits the nebulous realm of "middleware" with competitors such as Tango,
ASP and Cold Fusion.
If all you want to do is publish a fairly static product list (for example, a restaurant
menu), you can format it in a word processor and print it out; to publish it online, you
can pour the data into an HTML table. Browsers can interpret (and even search) HTML
tables directly, without the assistance of any other software.
But static lists are worthless when the data change frequently, when the data are
diverse and complicated, when you want to be able to search quickly through a lot of
data, and especially when you want to really do something with the data, such as make a
sale or allow users to calendar events online. (On doing the latter with Lasso, see Seth
Ganahl's article in the September 1999 issue of MacTech.) Then you need a database
management system (DBMS) such as FileMaker Pro or Microsoft Access, to
manipulate the data. And if you want to make your database available on the Web, you
will need a middleware tool such as Lasso. Neither the browser on the client machine
nor the Web-server application (for example, WebTEN or WebSTAR) on the Web
server can directly communicate with or manipulate the database or data source.
Serving as the intermediary between the Web server application and the database is
Lasso's main job. It can do several other very neat tricks, but this is its bread and
butter.
Lasso is a CGI or plug-in that runs in cooperation with your Web server software. It
comes in two distinct flavors: FileMaker Pro and ODBC. At the risk of stating the
obvious, I will point out that, to communicate with ODBC data sources, Lasso uses
ODBC. With FileMaker databases, on the other hand, Lasso can communicate in a couple
different ways. On a Mac server, Lasso normally talks to FileMaker databases using
Apple Events. Under Windows, Lasso communicates with the Web Companion using the
FM Remote data source module, which comes with Lasso. (This can also be used on a
Mac and is particularly useful if you are doing cross-platform development. The FM