Beyond Scripting... Professional Programming for the Web.

Content Overview

This year's conference will introduce a new format in which multiple learning and interaction opportunities will be offered. The two primary components of the conference are Sessions and Tracks, in addition to Round Tables, Lightning Talks and Panel Discussions.

• Sessions will last approximately 45 minutes. They are presented in a more formal setting and are intended for all conference attendees.
• Tracks will last approximately 30 minutes. They are divided into Beginner level topics and Advanced level topics.
• Round Tables are a free-form discussion with a moderator, and may last up to 30 minutes. They allow one-on-one interaction with conference attendees and are a good choice if you want to work directly with others on their solutions.
• Lightning Talks may last anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes. These allow several different topics to be presented in a block.
• Panels Discussions will consist of up to four or five members of the Lasso community or LassoSoft employees. Discussions may include a particular topic and questions will be taken from the audience.

If you'd like to present a Session or Track, host or moderate a Round Table, Lightning Talk, or participate in a Panel Discussion, please visit our Speaker Registration page.

The following topics are suggested for the Lasso Developer Conference 2009. Please continue to check back for updated information regarding additional topics.

Topics

Sessions

• Email - HTML, campaigns, tracking, etc.
• Coding Best Practices
• jQuery
• Encoding Mysteries and Character Sets
• Versioning Systems
• Error Handling
• Selling Applications & LassoApps
• Lasso 9

Beginner Tracks

• Intro to Frameworks
• Intro to SQL Queries
• Intro to Sessions
• Intro to Custom Tags/Types
• Intro to Inlines
• Intro to Data Structures
• Intro to Looping Structures & Conditionals
• Intro to PDF Tags
• Blocking Form Spam
• Intro to File Uploads

Advanced Tracks

• URL Handling and Define_AtBegin
• Command Line via Lasso
• Packet Capture Debugging
• Managing Assets
• Configuring Apache
• Configuring Lasso
• Configuring MySQL
• Working with 3rd Party APIs (SOAP, JSON, etc)
• Advanced Lasso 9 Tips & Tricks

Round Table, Lightning Talk and Panel Discussions

• Round Table: Mastering Calendar handling using Lassos iCalendar tags and types
• Lightning Talk: SingleTrack a simple MVC framework for Lasso

Speakers

The following speakers and topics are confirmed for the Lasso Developer Conference 2009. Please continue to check back for updated information regarding additional speakers topics.

Kyle Jessup - LassoSoft.com

Session: Lasso 9 - Updating Your Applications

Lasso 9 is the latest incarnation of the Lasso programming language. This major update contains many new features and abilities. It also removes some long deprecated methodologies which may affect some developers. Learn how to approach updating your apps to take full advantage of what Lasso 9 offers. You will also learn about what you won't need to change and how to leverage the provided Lasso 9 "LP8.5 compatibility layer".

About Kyle

Kyle Jessup is one of the owners of LassoSoft, and has been involved in the design and development of the Lasso product line since 1996. During this period, Kyle has written a bulky mass of code, touching on nearly every discipline in computer science. His main focus is insuring that the Lasso platform is stable, fast and competitive. Kyle's latest effort has been the development of Lasso 9, a re-implementation of the Lasso programming language centered on scalability. Kyle's other interests lie in the physical sciences, gardening and small animal wrangling. He resides with his wife in the mountains of North Carolina, USA.

Bil Corry - Lasso.Pro

Session: Secure Coding

Secure coding should be an integral part of your software development lifecycle (SDL). In this session, you will learn how to incorporate secure coding practices, such as input validation, authentication, cookies, logging, error handling, and more. A general overview of each best practice with practical examples will be presented.

Session: Encryption

Encryption is quite possibly the most misunderstood and misimplemented security feature a web application will use. In this session, you will learn about hashing, symmetric and asymmetric encryption, salting and cost, how to choose which type of encryption to use, practical suggestions for storing passwords, encrypting sensitive data server-side, encrypting sensitive data that is used client-side, and more.

Beginner Track: Intro to Regex

Regular expressions (aka regex) is a powerful tool that is often overlooked by novice developers. In this track, you will learn the basics of regex including how to use the most common expressions, the type of problems regex is best suited to solve, crafting and testing regex, switches that modify the behavior of the regex engine, and more.

Advanced Track: Asynchronous Threads

Asynchronous threads have several practical uses for any web application, such as recurring events, custom services and improving response times to clients. In this track, you will learn how to create asynchronous threads, how to control when they end, how to debug them, how to prioritize them, how to pass information to/from them, and more.

About Bil

Bil Corry is founder of Lasso.Pro, an international web application development and consulting firm specializing in scalable, secure web applications. Bil has been developing web applications using Lasso for more than 10 years. During this time, he also has been a major contributor to the Lasso community, including participating on LassoTalk (top 5 all-time contributor); code contributions for Email_Send, Auth Tags, PDF Tags, Memory Session Manager, File_Serve, LassoWiki and others; code contributions on TagSwap.net which include more than 100 custom tags; article and edit contributions on LassoTech; winner of a Lasso Programming Challenge; recipient of recognition at LDC2008 and has been a speaker at the Lasso Developers Conference in 2002 and 2008. Bil holds a degree in Computer Science from California State University, Fullerton and lives outside of Chicago with his wife and three kids.

Steve Piercy - StevePiercy.com

Beginner Track: Blocking Form Spam

Spam: A Dish Best Served Not at All In this hands-on track, you will learn how to successfully block form spam, defined as the exploitation of vulnerable web forms for sending unsolicited email and posting unwanted data and comments to web applications. Identify and avoid the common mistakes of novice programmers, while learning how to enhance form validation and security. Working code examples will be shared with all participants.

Beginner Track: Intro to File Uploads

In this hands-on track, you will write functional code that successfully uploads and manipulates files, and create a simple web-based job application. Together we will configure Lasso Server and Site Administration, and operating system file permissions, then step through writing code.

About Steve

Steve Piercy is a frequent contributor to LassoTalk, and has authored the Lasso File Permissions Guide. He maintains the BBEdit Codeless Language Module for Lasso as well as the AuthorizeNet_AIM custom tag for ecommerce. Steve earned a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics with an emphasis on Teacher Preparation from Humboldt State University. After careers in teaching, technical support, marketing communications, and programming, Steve successfully navigated his midlife crisis by turning his part-time Lasso coding hobby into a full-time business in 2008. Steve still puts his teaching experience to good use by safely shepherding Lassoers on public transit. Steve resides in Soquel, California, with his wife and cabbage-eating labrador.

Jolle Carlestam

Session: Encoding Mysteries and Character Sets

The case of the Räksmörgås: Encoding Mysteries and Character Sets. Lasso excels in handling character sets for different languages. With it's solid Unicode support it can deal with "just about every language on the planet". Yet, it's one topic that keeps coming back on LassoTalk as if it's a difficult area to master. This talk will provide some guidelines in how to become an encoding wizard. From user input through forms or file uploads, to the secure storing and retrieval of all them weird characters in databases or files.

Beginner Track: Intro to Inlines

Inlines is a Lasso unique feature that simplifies interactions with databases, file handling and more. It adds a high level of security while maintaining a simple interface to all developers, rookies as well as veterans. No one should contemplate using Lasso without learning how to use Inlines. This introduction will show you how.

Beginner Track: Intro to PDF Tags

By popular demand! This is the third time Jolle presents the PDF tags at a Lasso Conference. They are so useful and offer a competitive advantage compared to other languages, but can also be hard to master. After this introduction you'll hopefully start loving them a bit more, as well as start using them.

Round Table: Mastering Calendar handling using Lassos iCalendar tags and types

Want to make a Calendar killer app? Jolle does. This talk will focus on findings from a deep dive into Lasso iCalendar tag suite. What can they be used for? How do they work? What doesn't work and how force them past their limitations. As part of the talk we'll explore Lasso date handling, including new possibilities with Lasso 9.

About Jolle

From Lund, Sweden, Jolle Carlestam has operated his own business since 1999, developing web based applications. He has been faithful to Lasso since version 3. Jolle participates actively on LassoTalk and makes his third appearance as a presenter at a Lasso Developer Conference. He could be called an Internet veteran, working commercially with Internet related development since 1988. In Jolle's dark and hidden history lurks a theatre career, and can from time to time shine through in his presentations. Beware!

Brian Loomis - virtualrelations.us

Session: Versioning Systems

GIT for Subversion recidivists: Attendees at this hard hitting fast paced session will gain an understanding of how to use GIT to manage everything from their graphic designer to FileMaker (ever wanted unlimited undo's or cherry pick a spot in FileMaker history? ). Because of GIT's structure as a distributed model for version control and other features it has gained wide adoption in the LlNUX community and among developers in other languages and frameworks.

Attendees will also explore a workflow structure using GIT to manage a Lasso project in Coda with simple deployments. Learn how to securely deploy code without exposing services like FTP to the public on your server. For Subversion recidivists, we'll also show how to work with Subversion repositories using GIT. Whether your shop or agency uses GIT or Subversion by the end of this session you will want to be using GIT for all your repository needs.

Lightning Talk: SingleTrack a simple MVC framework for Lasso

This quick presentation introduces a new lightweight framework for Lasso based on the Model View Controller concept. Singletrack includes many tags from tagswap organized in a simple architecture that allows complex scripting in the models and controllers while leaving the views as a presentation layer using square bracket syntax. This unique blend allows programmers and designers to work side by side in a production environment.

About Brian

Brian Loomis of Virtual Relations began scripting by automating spreadsheet applications on an Apple IIsi in 1989. He annually attends the Scripting Matters AppleScript Conference, the Lasso Developer Conference, and the FileMaker Developers Conference, where he most recently presented in the ad-hoc sessions on Separation of Data and Interface. Brian is an Apple Consultants Network Member, and Adobe Solution Partner.

Eric landmann - landmanninteractive.com

Round Table: itPage, A Lasso-based Open-Source CMS

This presentation introduces itPage, a general-purpose CMS framework. Topics covered include itPage logic flow, page building, database structure, and custom tags. The admin area will be explored, covering the image library, file library, navigation heirarchy, setting up galleries, testimonials and portfolios, and page templates.

itPage allows the developer to build graphically-rich, yet simple to administer websites. itPage sites provide their owners with portfolios, testimonials, image galleries, stories, clean URLs, graphically-rich content (including native .swf and video), and tools for natural SEO optimization. Emphasis will be on the creativity and flexibility afforded to the developer by itPage.

Administrators have access to the navigation heirarchy, page content, multiple templates, broad image and media handling, SEO tailoring (site-wide or per-page), jQuery goodness, mailserver and webserver settings, and a user framework.

Lightning Talk: Lfor, An Open-Source Forums Application

Lfor is a Lasso-powered Forums application that can be used in conjunction with other Lasso-powered sites, or as a stand-alone application. Lfor features include user registration, optional user e-mail notification by topic, up to five user postnames, user pictures, posting totals and dates, and image uploads tied to a particular thread.

About Eric

Eric Landmann is the owner of Landmann InterActive, a web development company in Madison, WI, USA. He is the author of Graphics Finder, a Lasso-based digital asset management system. Eric has been a speaker or roundtable host at three previous Lasso Summits. Previous topics included "Using ImageMagick, Lasso and PassThru," "Implementing a Changes Tracking System," and "Under the Hood, Debugging Tips and Tricks."

Additionally, through Iterate LLC, he is the owner and developer of TrackMyBugs.com, a subscription-based issue tracking service for developers and website owners.

More Information

please note: content and speakers subject to change (but we will try not to)

Please contact info@lassosoft.com if you have any questions.