Why Use Lasso?

[heatherk]

Pardon me if I seem terribly undereducated, but my recent research has not truned up all the answers I had hoped it would. Can someone give me a brief rundown of why someone would use Lasso when Filemaker has it's built-in web companion? I need to recommend one to my company, but don't see anything that tells me just how they differ. Thanks!

-Heather

[Kurt Knippel]

quote:

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Originally posted by heatherk:

Pardon me if I seem terribly undereducated, but my recent research has not truned up all the answers I had hoped it would. Can someone give me a brief rundown of why someone would use Lasso when Filemaker has it's built-in web companion? I need to recommend one to my company, but don't see anything that tells me just how they differ. Thanks!

---

They are essentially the same. As in Netscape is essentially the same as Explorer, or Word is essentially the same as WordPerfect.

However they are different in that each has strengths and weaknesses that the other does not. In general Web Companion and CDML is simpler to use and implement, but does not have as many features as Lasso and LDML.

Web Companion/CDML is free so not harm starting with it. The vast majority of the work is in the database itself and the HTML for the web pages, neither of which affects what happens with the CDML/LDML code. If at some point in time you come to some kind of functionality that CDML cannot do, and LDML can, then switch over to Lasso. Maybe you will never come to this point.

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=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Kurt Knippel

Consultant

Database Resources

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.database-resources.com

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[CaelC]

Check out this incredibly useful comparison between the two. Of course this is from Blueworld, the makers of Lasso so it is biased a bit. However, I haven't seen any information in it that isn't accurate.

Lasso vs. Web Companion

Hope that helps,

Cael.

[Anatoli]

That is just FM 4.

FM 5 WC is 7 times faster than v 4.

Also now tokens were introduced and powerfull Inline.

[CaelC]

Additional info:

Lasso does inlines, variables, tokens, cookies, etc.

It has about 200 more tags than CDML but you may not need them.

It is a multi-threaded application and is faster than CDML since FileMaker is not multi-threaded. Lasso can handle more requests, faster. There is still a bottleneck at FMP however until FMP becomes multi-threaded.

Cael.

[scratchmalogicalwax]

The most useful thing I have found with lasso is the Inline. I like the fact that nasty people can't gain information such as Database name field names etc. Some information can be gleaned from a database by putting it's URL into your web browser - try it!!! not much but if you produce and host applications for third parties u don't want any holes!

[Anatoli]

quote:

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Originally posted by scratchmalogicalwax:

The most useful thing I have found with lasso is the Inline. I like the fact that nasty people can't gain information such as Database name field names etc. Some information can be gleaned from a database by putting it's URL into your web browser - try it!!! not much but if you produce and host applications for third parties u don't want any holes!

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FM 5 has Inline as well. The next version of WC will be probably multithreaded.

You can narrow or close the "URL hole" by better design (Frames and forced frames)

In respect to more power in Lasso - I am not disputing that. If someone has overloaded WC server, Lasso will help. But it is costly upgrade.

[scratchmalogicalwax]

I didn't know WC did inlines aswell!.....your right WC in frames with a bit of "no right click" javaScript is cheaper (doesn't stop opening cache in a text editor).....my company builds, hosts and handles response from online job application forms for UK companies, some of which are IT/New Media their IT departments can be very hard to satisfy on data security so we have to be as bullet proof as possible (thats why we use Mac/WebSTAR/Lasso)....horses for courses i spose!!

[Anatoli]

quote:

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Originally posted by scratchmalogicalwax:

I didn't know WC did inlines aswell!.....your right WC in frames with a bit of "no right click" javaScript is cheaper (doesn't stop opening cache in a text editor).....my company builds, hosts and handles response from online job application forms for UK companies, some of which are IT/New Media their IT departments can be very hard to satisfy on data security so we have to be as bullet proof as possible (thats why we use Mac/WebSTAR/Lasso)....horses for courses i spose!!

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scratchmalogicalwax,

Where are you based in London? I've spent 11 years there and I like it very much.

BTW, my "Forced Frames" (works with JS and even without JS) also prohibit the occasional hacker to construct query and call page from FM WEB folder...

It is not 100% block; but then again I've almost shut the door with all design tricks.

Anatoli

[flexistentialism]

Richmond.....very nice down here but expensive!!

I'd be interested to see your security measures in action.

Inlines are great but I'm having to find some interesting work arounds for problems I am coming across.

One such problem is that I have a unique field 'username', When I add a new record with an existing username the inline add action on the response format file is still being processed by lasso/FMPro and I end up with a blank record and no error reported, the current error replacement tag is returned as " " (not No Error) and the new record has a RecordID of -1

I can work around this by finding that a blank record has been created i grab what they added with tokens from the 'form_param's apend a value to the username (auto enter serial field, to make the username unique) and return them to a new record screen with different inlines, including a delete inline to kill the blank record, and all the fields filled with the values they originally added including the now unique username.

So as you can see your forced frames sound a lot more straightforward and you don't end up with serial number field that jumps numbers!

Flexistentialism

AKA Scatchmalogicalwaxploitation AKA Tom

[Anatoli]

Richmond is GREAT! I've started my UK days there! Then I was in W1, West Hempstead and ended in Hersham, Surrey.

I am forcing frames with JS at the top of the page:

< SCRIPT language="JavaScript1.2"><!--

if (top.location == self.location ) {

top.location.href = "http://www.prnet.cz/pages/jstest.html"

}

// -->

</SCRIPT>

< NOSCRIPT>

<META http-equiv="refresh" content="0;URL=http://www.prnet.cz/pages/jstest.html" target="_top">

</NOSCRIPT>

So everything works always in Frames with JS ON or OFF.

I am not sure, if I imagine right your problem. When there has to be unique name, I was always adding some Random number to it and when such person was login in, I've used calculated field with Name + password combination.

I've put blank spaces after the "<"

Anatoli

[scratchmalogicalwax]

Thats a neat little bit of code, I knew the javaScript one but had never thought of using meta refresh for non JavaScript enabled browsers!

back to what heatherk asked (went off on one there a bit!) I think unless he's planning on high traffic or really needs the extra tags go with the free WebCompanion and WebConnector!

[Anatoli]

quote:

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Originally posted by scratchmalogicalwax:

Thats a neat little bit of code, I knew the javaScript one but had never thought of using meta refresh for non JavaScript enabled browsers!

back to what heatherk asked (went off on one there a bit!

) I think unless he's planning on high traffic or really needs the extra tags go with the free WebCompanion and WebConnector!

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Thanks. The JS/non JS is simple and quite powerful but not 100% protection. But it makes more work for occasional hacker.

Lasso and WC are constantly improving. For now I am glad, that we have some path to increase power (Lasso or RAIC) and still have one set of databases on-line.

BTW I am back from Slovakia and on line again.