Progress
Application Development
Environment — Getting Started
ADE Toolset
The descriptions of the ADE tools in this section are listed in the order in which they appear in the Tools menu. An asterisk (*) indicates that you can also access the tool from a tool icon. If a tool has not been licensed or installed at your site, its icon does not appear in the ADE Desktop.
The ADE tools are:
- Data Dictionary* — A tool used to define the structure of your database including tables, fields, and indexes, and to generate reports about the database. You can use this tool to define application defaults that, for example, validate data, perform security checks, and generate unique sequence numbers. The Progress 4GL gives you the flexibility to override most of these defaults in individual applications.
You also use the Data Dictionary to create and connect to databases.
- Procedure Editor* — An editor used to create, edit, compile, and run unstructured 4GL procedures (as opposed to the structured procedures created by the AppBuilder). The Procedure Editor also provides functionality for checking syntax, managing multiple files, and customizing its environment.
- Data Administration — A tool used to perform a variety of database administration tasks including creating, starting, and shutting down databases, dumping and loading database files, importing and exporting data, and implementing database security.
- PRO*Tools — A set of utility programs to aid in developing and running applications in the Progress ADE. For example, one of the PRO*Tools allows you to edit your PROPATH, the path Progress searches to find programs. When you select PRO*Tools from the Tools menu, the ADE displays a resizable palette of icons. You then run an individual PRO*Tool by clicking on its icon.
- AppBuilder* — The primary visual programming tool in the Progress ADE. All of the work of fabricating and assembling application components is done in the AppBuilder. The AppBuilder’s Section Editor adds convenience to editing 4GL code while preserving the standardized structure that works best with Progress application components, such as basic objects and SmartObjects.
- Web Tools — Tools used to monitor your Web server environment, manipulate objects such as deleting and checking syntax, viewing database schema information, and issuing operating system commands through an intuitive browser interface that also provides links to sample applications and support services.
- Report Builder* — A robust data access and reporting tool that allows you to create production-quality reports that select, analyze, and present data from your database tables in a variety of ways. Report Builder’s presentation features give you the ability to control fonts and colors, and to include images in your reports. The report definitions are saved in a report library.
- Results* — An interactive menu-driven tool that lets end users with little or no programming experience query, report on, and maintain information stored in database tables. As an application developer, you can also customize Results according to the needs of individual sites, and then integrate it into your applications.
- Translation Manager* — A tool used to manage the process of customizing an application for specific end-user languages. Translation Manager allows you to select words and phrases from source procedure files for translation into other languages. These words and phrases are assembled into translation kits that you can send to translators who perform the actual translation. After you receive the completed translations, you use the Translation Manager to review the translations and integrate them into your applications. The Translation Manager also provides statistical information about your translation projects.
- Visual Translator — A tool used by the translators who translate the actual words and phrases into other languages. The Visual Translator uses a translation kit that was generated by the Translation Manager, and allows the translator to work either from a list or in the visual context of an application’s windows.
- Application Compiler — A tool used to compile individual source procedures or a group of procedures to produce executable code that is permanently stored.
- Application Debugger* — An interactive tool used to monitor the execution of an application by stopping and restarting it at specified lines. You can also display or update information about the procedure you are running (such as the names and values of variables) without modifying any procedure code. The Debugger runs as a separate process with its own window.
- Actuate e.Report Designer Professional * — A 32-bit Windows graphical tool used to design, build, and test Actuate components and report designs within an object-oriented development environment. The Actuate e.Report Designer Professional contains ActiveX controls and APIs (formerly the Actuate SDK) that allow Actuate reporting functionality to be embedded into Progress applications.
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