Blue World releases Lasso Professional 5

The long-anticipated Lasso Professional 5 Standard Edition and Developer Edition is now available from Blue World Communications. It’s the latest version of the Lasso Web Data Engine product for building and serving data-driven Web sites.

The Lasso 5 product line consists of Lasso Studio 5 and Lasso Professional 5. Lasso Studio 5 is the solution for Web designers who use graphical Web site editing products such as Adobe GoLive, Macromedia Dreamweaver and Macromedia Dreamweaver UltraDev and who desire a visual authoring environment for building data-driven Web sites that are powered by Lasso Professional 5.

“Beyond representing the easiest to use product in its class, Lasso Professional 5 provides several industry-first and exclusive features including built-in security, an embedded MySQL database server and a comprehensive administration interface,” Bill Doerrfeld, CEO of Blue World, said in announcing the product.

Lasso Professional 5 introduces a next-generation object-oriented Web programming language, advanced Web application server administration and security, an embedded Lasso MySQL high-performance database server, a new distributed architecture, new platform and data source support, enhanced extensibility and customization, redesigned and rewritten documentation (over 1,800 pages) and over 200 new features and enhancements, he added.

Lasso Professional 5 Standard Edition is the edition to be used for final deployment and administration of data-driven Web sites. The Standard Edition allows an unlimited number of visitors to use sites powered by Lasso Professional 5. The Developer Edition is the edition to be used for development and testing of Lasso-powered Web sites. Developer Edition is limited to use by a single developer. An evaluation edition of Lasso Professional 5 is also available that’s based on the Developer Edition but is limited to first-time trial use for up to 30 days.

Lasso Professional 5 supports Mac OS X version 10.1 and Windows 2000, providing support for Apache on Mac OS X, IIS on Windows 2000 and 4D WebSTAR Server Suite V on Mac OS X. Beyond the embedded Lasso MySQL database, Lasso Professional 5 introduces direct support for external MySQL databases via Lasso Connector for MySQL and direct support for FileMaker Pro databases via Lasso Connector for FileMaker Pro. Other data source connectors will be available via third parties.

The electronic download versions of Lasso Professional 5 Standard and Developer Editions are available immediately for purchase direct from the Blue World Store. Box versions are also available for immediate purchase and will ship by the end of March. Customers who purchase the box version now can use the download version until the box version is available.

Lasso Professional 5 Standard Edition costs US$1,199 for electronic download and $1,299 for the boxed edition. Lasso Professional 5 Developer Edition is $699 for the electronic download and $799 for the boxed edition. Registered customers who own a license for any edition of Lasso Web Data Engine 3.x can upgrade to Lasso Professional 5 Standard Edition for $599 for the electronic download and $699 for the boxed edition. No upgrades from prior versions of Lasso products to Developer Edition are available.

To complement one’s Lasso Professional 5 new or upgrade product purchase, customers may purchase a subscription plan that provides 12 months of free upgrades to the latest versions of like editions of Lasso Professional 5, Doerrfeld said. It includes five incidents of priority technical support.