OpenLaszlo 4.1.1 is a major release bringing full support for both the DHTML/Ajax and the SWF/Flash platforms. It also includes over 800 bug fixes and a significantly improved documentation suite.

OpenLaszlo 4.1.1 has been fully-qualified across the following browser/platform combinations: Safari3/OSX, Firefox2/OSX, Internet Explorer 7/WinXP, Firefox 2/WinXP, and Firefox 2/Linux. We have tested the full suite of demos, samplers, and example applications with the requirement that, when possible, DHTML applications behave the same as their SWF counterparts.

OpenLaszlo 4.1.1 is now the recommended release for all developers on all platforms, and current users of OL 3.x and 4.0 should investigate upgrading to this new release.

OpenLaszlo 4.1.1 fixes many bugs in the initial 4.1.0 release. A list of the bugs fixed in OpenLaszlo 4.1.1 and details about each can be found here: Fixed bugs in 4.1.1

We recommend that all users who downloaded OpenLaszlo 4.1.0 upgrade to release 4.1.1.

Preliminary support for SWF9 is included in this release but has not been enabled in the developer console. If you want to try this new functionality, you can find more information on using the SWF9 support in the Release Notes

Please be aware of the following known issue in OpenLaszlo 4.1.1:

LPP-6633: For SWF9 development on Unix, you will need to manually chmod 755 all the binaries in WEB-INF/server/bin/ before you can compile. This is true for both the .war and .gz distributions.

If you're trying to get the most out of OpenLaszlo, consider taking one of our training classes on OpenLaszlo. We've just scheduled sessions here in San Mateo for both OpenLaszlo Fundamentals (starting on September 11) and our Building OpenLaszlo Applications (starting on September 8). Sessions in Toronto and Hyderabad are also being scheduled.

More information on the classes is available here

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Here's a preview to our upcoming releases.

OpenLaszlo 4.1.1
OpenLaszlo 4.1.1 is coming later this week. Our intent is to provide a quick turnaround on bugs reported by the Community. Some of the more important bugs that have been resolved include:

LPP-6586: POST not working with setQueryParams()
LPP-6619: LzTextElement not resizing on subsequent fontsize changes
LPP-6581: Drawview masks subview in 4.1 SWF
LPP-6605: Invalid delegate Warning each time using component gridcolumn
LPP-6589: 4.1 DHTML debugger does not accept all character input

You can find the full list of bugs in JIRA.

OpenLaszlo 4.2
We are also working concurrently on an OpenLaszlo 4.2 release, with an expected delivery date at the end of July. OpenLaszlo 4.2 will include more Community bug fixes, but most importantly, will deliver SWF9 alpha-level support. If you know of important issues, please file them in JIRA directly at http://www.openlaszlo.org/jira/browse/lpp. We welcome your involvement and comment on the project. You can join the mailing lists or participate in the forums at http://forum.openlaszlo.org.

There has been a lot of buzz about Google's improved flash indexing. While this initiative may be helpful for extracting and locating text and media content in SWF files, it probably won't help much with indexing structure. There's no real standard for 'deep linking' into Flash applications. Also, most OpenLaszlo applications they won't get indexed by Google because they're embedded with JavaScript.

So what's a developer to to do? In a nutshell, generate simple HTML for each item in the application which can be crawled by Google and other search engines. Each page uses Javascript to replace the HTML content with an application that starts up in the appropriate state. You can see a live example here from the Laszlo in Action book.

In this example, the items are products in an online store. Each product gets its own URL/HTML page, linked to from index pages or search results. Each product page embeds an application that is passed the product ID so the application comes up in the right context. Deep linking and history still work as users browse products, courtesy of the OpenLaszlo embedding and history system. Try browsing through a few different products - notice your browsing history is preserved - the back and forward buttons work just as they should. Try turning off JavaScript to see the HTML underneath.

This approach ensures each item is indexed by search engines along with pertinent information: price, keywords, artist, title in this case. Because it's plain HTML, SEO and all the other tricks work the same way.

When a user visits the site on a mobile device they get the same simple, functional HTML representation that search engines do. When they visit on a desktop machine, the same page brings up a rich application. To the user it's a seamless experience that's tailored for the device they're running.

This technique doesn't just apply to OpenLaszlo - it can be used for any rich application, Flash or otherwise. Of course, OpenLaszlo 4.1 makes the process really easy with its deep linking and history management support, whether you are targeting Flash or DHTML. For more details, see chapter 15 of Laszlo in Action and the OpenLaszlo documentation.

We just had to share this with you. Last night, we passed a major milestone in the history of the OpenLaszlo project. Yesterday, we passed the 500,000 copies of downloaded. Half a million.

That's a big number. And it's going to continue to grow because you folks are making OpenLaszlo a great environment to build great things in.

Congrats to the OpenLaszlo team -- and everyone involved in OpenLaszlo -- for making OpenLaszlo what it is today.