OpenLaszlo and SpketIDE

SpketIDE is a useful IDE for developing OpenLaszlo applications. SpketIDE provides many useful OpenLaszlo editing functions beyond the simple color syntax support available with NetBeans 6.1 (as demonstrated in Flex and OpenLaszlo in NetBeans 6.1 Beta) or JEdit (as demonstrated in Using JEdit with OpenLaszlo and Flex) or other XML-cognizant editors.

The main SpketIDE Laszlo Editor page demonstrates many of the useful features Spket provides for OpenLaszlo development. Of course, there is color syntax highlighting support, but there is also support for more advanced features such as different types of code completion and occurrence marking. I like having the Laszlo documentation available in the editor as an added convenience because I otherwise find myself spending a lot of time flipping back and forth between my editor and the LZX Reference Manual.

According to the Spket 1.6.12 Downloads page, there is no charge for SpketIDE for non-commercial use. Currently (late June 2008), the license cost for a single license for commercial use is less than $30 USD. The SpketIDE FAQ also provides information on how to use SpketIDE with OpenLaszlo specifically.

I used SpketIDE to write the code for my example of writing an RSS Reader with OpenLaszlo and a screen snapshot of that code in SpketIDE is shown next (click on the image to see a larger version).



This snapshot demonstrates the Project Explorer, the Outline, Code Snippets (with Components opened up), the Lz Documentation window, and, of course, the main code editing window with color coded syntax.

SpketIDE is a useful editor for OpenLaszlo developers that is simple but powerful, easy to use, and has the potential to increase OpenLaszlo developer productivity.