FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 9, 2003
BLUE WORLD ANNOUNCES LASSO PROFESSIONAL 7
Support for embedded MySQL, Unicode, SOAP, image manipulation, data
caching, and more to position Lasso Professional 7 as a leading Web
application server.
Bellevue, WA--September 9, 2003--Blue World Communications, Inc.--pioneers
of the Web Data Engine(tm)--today announced Lasso Professional 7, a
significant upgrade to its award-winning Web application server product for
building and serving data-driven Web sites. Lasso Professional 7 introduces
support for various industry standards while maintaining the ease-of-use
and robust security that have won Lasso the support of thousands of Web
developers worldwide.
"Lasso Professional 7 provides Web application developers a tool
specifically designed to meet their most demanding needs without
compromising ease-of-use, offering unprecedented productivity and
flexibility," said Bill Doerrfeld, CEO of Blue World. "Compliance with the
latest industry standards positions Lasso Professional 7 at the forefront
within the rapidly evolving Web application server tool arena."
Lasso Professional 7 New Features
Lasso Professional 7 (LP7) provides all of the features expected in an
advanced Web application server, including the following new features:
Embedded MySQL 4 Database Server - Includes a full commercial license of
the MySQL database server embedded into the Lasso Server application. The
embedded Lasso MySQL database server provides numerous advantages to the
Lasso MySQL database provided in LP6 including greater performance, support
for transactions, tighter security, and easier installation and maintenance.
Internationalization and Localization - LP7 is now Unicode compliant,
supporting hundreds of languages and character sets. Numbers, dates, and
currencies can now be represented in localized formats.
Dramatically Enhanced Performance - New byte-code compiler, algorithms and
architecture provide vastly improved performance. LP7 outperforms virtually
all other middleware products, in many cases by wide margins.
SOAP/WSDL/XML Support - Facilitates communication with Web services via
XML-based standards for data exchange.
Supports SOAP calls so Lasso can be a Web services host. New XML
implementation provides dramatic performance increase for both large and
small documents while operating within a smaller memory footprint.
Image Manipulation - Get information about images, resize images on the
fly, create thumbnails, create watermarked images, or convert images from
one format to another automatically.
Apache 2 Web Server Support - Supports Apache 2 on Mac OS X (in addition to
Apache 1.x) and Red Hat Linux.
Caching for Enhanced Performance - Performance when communicating with
slower databases can be dramatically enhanced through easy-to-use caching
tags. Allows data served from databases such as FileMaker Pro to be served
at speeds rivaling data served from MySQL databases.
Enhanced and Simplified PDF Tags - Existing PDFs are now editable. PDF tags
have been streamlined and take advantage of new features provided in an
updated iText library. Now its easy to add dynamic content to existing
PDF-based templates.
Enhanced Database Communication - Programmatically control data source
connections and transaction support via enhanced inline functionality.
Ensures appropriate submission of data via Commit and Rollback routines.
Manipulate database results as an array of returned records.
Enhanced File Manipulation - Simplifies file manipulation with files now
treated as objects. Provides enhanced performance for repeated access to
the same file.
Enhanced Network Communications - Simplifies network communications with
network elements now treated as objects. Provides TCP and UDP support,
listeners, and persistent connections. SSL support allows secure
communications.
Multi-Server Support - Facilitates load balancing and clustering by
allowing multiple LP7 servers to share session data.
LassoApp Maintenance - Lists open LassoApps within Lasso Administration for
easier maintenance.
Lasso Administration Enhancements - Streamlined interface focuses on
administration tasks (e.g. Setup, Utility, Support) and provides new
sections for controlling LassoApps and caching control settings.
Remote Installation Support - Facilitates remote installation via the
command line on Mac OS X.
Lasso Security Enhancements - Can now check authorization against specific
usernames and groups or against a custom username and password.
LCAPI - New LCAPI calls support Unicode strings providing enhanced
performance and internationalization support.
Macintosh Support - Supports both Mac OS X 10.3 Panther and Mac OS X 10.2
Jaguar. Compiled using GCC 3.3 with optimized support for the PowerPC G5
processor in addition to providing support for existing G3/G4 processors.
Backwards Compatibility - All LP6 compatible solutions will run in LP7
without modification. The installer instantly upgrades LP6 servers to LP7
with all settings intact.
Enhanced Installer - Enhanced installer now automatically configures more
Web servers on Mac OS X (e.g. Apache 2, Apache 1.3 and WebSTAR V) and no
longer requires IIS to be running on Windows.
Enhanced Error Reporting - More informative error reports provide
information about included files. Tag and page parameters are now reported.
Multiple parsing errors are reported at once.
Open Source - New open source components include Lasso Connector for Apache
2 and all new built-in LDML-based custom tags (e.g. caching, validation,
security, and link tags).
Platform, Database and Web Server Support
Lasso Professional 7 supports Mac OS X 10.2 and 10.3 running Apache 1.3,
Apache 2 or WebSTAR V. LP7 also supports Windows Server 2003, Windows XP
Professional and Windows 2000 running Internet Information Services
versions 5 or 6. Support for Red Hat Linux 9 with Apache 2 will be made
available soon after the initial release for Macintosh and Windows.
Beta Testing
Lasso Professional 7 is currently undergoing extensive testing by Blue
World and members of the Lasso Partner Alliance. Parties interested in
receiving early access to Lasso Professional 7 are strongly encouraged to
join the Lasso Partner Alliance. Details are available at
http://www.LassoPartner.com.
Availability and Pricing
Lasso Professional 7 is scheduled for release in October, 2003 at $999 for
the electronic download edition. Registered customers who own a license of
Lasso Professional 6, Lasso Professional 5 Standard Edition or Lasso Web
Data Engine 3.x may upgrade to Lasso Professional 7 for $399, $499 and $599
respectively. New and upgrade sales of Lasso Professional 7 will commence
upon the product's release.
Free Upgrades
Customers who purchase a new or upgrade version of Lasso Professional 6
between September 9, 2003 and the release of Lasso Professional 7 will
receive a free upgrade to Lasso Professional 7. Qualified customers may
request their free upgrades via the Blue World Store upon the release of
Lasso Professional 7. Customers who upgrade from Lasso Professional 5 to
Lasso Professional 6 will save $100 by upgrading prior to the release of
Lasso Professional 7. Lasso Professional 6 will no longer be sold upon the
release of Lasso Professional 7.
About Blue World
Blue World Communications delivers cross-platform software tools allowing
Web developers and designers to quickly build and serve powerful
data-driven Web sites. Blue World provides Lasso Professional, Lasso Studio
and the Blue World ListSearch service in fulfillment of its mission to
bring business to the Internet(tm).
