New Version of LANSA Offers More Tools for Web Developers

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Layout Wizard, jQuery UI, New Themes and Controls, Enhanced Support for AJAX and JSON Simplify Development of Feature Rich, Dynamic Web Applications

Sydney, Australia — June 15, 2011 — LANSA announces the general availability of Version 12, Service Pack 1 (SP1) of its Visual LANSA software development platform, which is the foundation of thousands of custom business applications worldwide. The features implemented in SP1 make it easier for Web developers to create aesthetically pleasing, feature rich and dynamic Web applications. Developers have been using Visual LANSA to build Web applications for more than a decade – and now, with SP1, building new Web applications is even easier.

SP1 includes the popular jQuery UI which is a fast and compact JavaScript library that simplifies working with HTML document objects, event handling, and AJAX calls – all of which contribute to rapidWeb application development. New themes make page design easier and new controls improve the visual aspects of application pages. The controls include Auto-Complete, Date, Date-Time, Dynamic Drop-Down, Google Chart, Menu Bar, Rich Text Editor, Time, and Treeview. SP1 enhances support for AJAX calls with JSON formatted responses.

A new wizard helps developers quickly design a page layout and define a color scheme. The wizard presents a set of pre-defined layout options from which developers can select one appropriate for their application. It also provides eight ready-to-use themes to apply to the layout. The wizard generates the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript – developers then add the application content. Web designers can also create new page layouts and themes to add to the layout gallery.

At the heart of the LANSA software development platform is its meta data Repository that stores enterprise-wide validation rules and business logic in a single location. The Repository enforces the rules within every LANSA-based application, as well as any non LANSA-based application that makes use of the Repository's Rules Engine.

SP1 introduces a new Repository object, called External Resource, which allows developers to enroll all application resources and artifacts in the Repository. External resources can include images, CSS, HTML, JavaScript, and XML files – and they can all be checked-in and checked-out. The version control and task tracking services in Visual LANSA manage these objects just like any other object throughout the development process.

SP1 also makes it possible to install or upgrade LANSA for iSeries into an IASP (Independent Auxiliary Storage Pool).

For more information aboutVisual LANSA's Web development tools.

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