After superlative reviews, I recently decided to obtain Lasso Studio for
Dreamweaver. I cannot express how disappointed I am with the substandard
documentation.

The User Guide is riddled with typographical and factual errors on key issues
as well as omissions and redundancies. I persist like many because of the
anticipated benefit of implementing a Lasso web-site.

Some of these stumbling blocks may seem trivial once learned, but even for a
14 year FM developer as myself they are frustratingly pesky and time
consuming. Of course, for those who have already worked through this, you may
regard these as merely beginner's problems. However, substandard
documentation is actually a publisher's problem. An elegant installation
process and tutorial not only properly train developers but sell software!

Hopefully, these tips will be useful to a new user attempting to set up an
authoring and testing environment on a local machine, and; hopefully save
hours of frustration. And, I am even more hopeful that Blueworld will have a
professional writer overhaul the Lasso Studio for DW documentation. Here is
what I encountered:

1. You must install Lasso Studio for DW in order to print the user guide
which will tell you how to properly install Lasso Studio for DW. (Yes this
may mean that you will have to install more than once if you didn't guess
right the first time through.

2. It is not necessary to download Lasso Web Data Engine to create a testing
environment since Lasso Studio for DW will automatically install something
similar called "Lasso Studio Web Data Engine" into Lasso Server. This is
largely transparent to you and not well documented.

3. Disregard Chapter 2 (Requirements and Installation), as it has been
replaced by a new Chapter 2 in the "Lasso Studio for DW Addendum." The new
chapter is much better, but still has several errors shown below:

a. Omitted from the documentation is a step when the installer will ask you
for a "Lasso Data" file which is located in the Lasso Studio for DW folder.
Simply click on the "Lasso Data" file.

b. The documentation states that the installer creates a "Lasso Studio Web
Data Engine" folder but it doesn't.

c. Under Configuration (pg. 16) , you are referred to Chapter 5 when it
should say Chapter 4.

d. Under Security (pg. 17) it would be clearer if the documentation asked you
to load the URL in a web browser.

e. Before even trying Security, skip ahead to "Testing Locally without a
Network Connection." You will need this setup in order for the Security to
see your database(s)

3. The following errors or omissions in the Chapter 3 Tutorial kept me
guessing.

a. The documentation does not define "Web Serving Folder" (pg. 29). I had
good luck using the <Lasso Studio for DW> folder. Just about anything else
would not allow me to complete the tutorial. There is something called "Web
Server Root Folder" but the tutorial does not say what it is all about.

b. Page 31, "Using the Configuration Wizard" omits how it is accessed:
Dreamweaver>Commands>Lasso Configuration Wizard.

c. Page 32 , You are asked to make sure the "Lasso Studio Web Data Engine is
running but it omits telling you how to do so. Since I used Lasso Server, I
found a reference to the engine starting up in the log file.

d. Page 32, If you are lucky enough to have a successful snapshot of your
database, the documentation skips a step in which you must click on "Load
Snapshot File"

e. Page 35, After you select "Pre-lasso Input:Add Record" the documentation
skips a step where the wizard asks you to confirm the database.

f. If the fields wont show up in the Form Builder, it is because you need
Filemaker 5.0v3 (v1 wont work even if you have your security set up properly)

I was actually able to successfully test my Lasso powered pages!

But I am now stuck on Creating an Inline-Based Search in the tutorial.
If anyone can find any logic in page 43 regarding the elusive "response text
field", please let me know.

Kevin Whaley
Design Lab
kevin2001arba@aol.com

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