The Progress Application Development Environment

For developing applications, the Progress Application Development Environment (ADE) provides a complete, integrated set of graphical development tools to productively build, test, and maintain applications. At the heart of the ADE lies the Progress Fourth Generation Language (4GL), a complete programming language that allows developers to totally control application interfaces, processing logic, and data—the control required to complete mission-critical systems. At the foundation of the ADE lie the Data Dictionary, which stores all of the application data definitions, default information, and business rules, and the AppBuilder, which is the central tool for designing and building Web-based, n-tier, and client/server-based interactive applications.

The Progress ADE is comprised of the following tools:

  • AppBuilder
  • Progress® 4GL
  • Progress Dynamics®
  • Data Dictionary
  • Procedure Editor
  • Data Administration
  • PRO*Tools
  • Report Builder
  • Progress Results®
  • Translation Manager
  • Visual Translator
  • Application Compiler
  • Application Debugger
  • Online Help

Using these tools, developers can produce all the necessary components of their mission-critical applications—from front-end graphical and character interfaces, to complex logic processing procedures, to batch processes, to production reports, and outside software integration.

AppBuilder

Progress Version 9 introduces a new visual programming environment and tool called the AppBuilder. The AppBuilder framework unifies traditional client/server and n-tier functionality with Web-based technology to support a broad, integrated range of application and development options. With the AppBuilder, you can quickly create complex application interfaces simply by defining and positioning user controls and database information on the screen with a visual point-and-drag environment. You can assemble applications using a variety of objects, ranging in scale from individual controls such as command buttons, pull-down menus, check boxes, and radio sets to more robust reusable components such as data browsers, data frames, navigation panels, tab folders, and third-party components such as ActiveX controls.

The AppBuilder provides you with shortcuts for creating standard business objects through Progress SmartObjects. These are Progress procedures that encapsulate standard user interface logic and data. SmartObjects automate development by letting you quickly and easily create reusable code in a graphical, object-oriented programming environment. Once created, SmartObjects can be assembled into applications by pointing and clicking. The AppBuilder supplies several powerful SmartObjects templates, which you can use and customize. You can also create your own SmartObjects. SmartObjects include SmartDataViewers, SmartDataBrowsers and Dynamic SmartDataBrowsers, SmartPanels, SmartWindows, SmartFrames, SmartToolbars, SmartSelects, SmartDataFields, SmartFilters, SmartDataObjects, SmartBusinessObjects, SmartB2BObjects (Business-to-Business), and SmartSenders, Smart Receivers, SmartProducers and SmartConsumers.

Progress 4GL

The Progress 4GL is the common thread that runs through the entire toolset in the Progress ADE. It is a complete, high-level application development language that allows you to address all of your mission-critical application needs while reducing complexity and enhancing productivity.

The Progress 4GL also allows seamless access to components. You can use the Progress 4GL to manipulate ActiveX controls or to incorporate Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) Automation Servers into your applications.

Progress Dynamics

Progress Dynamics is the application framework of the OpenEdge platform. It is a repository-based development and deployment environment for distributed applications. Progress Dynamics represents a new application development paradigm concentrating on using data to replace hard-coded application attributes. User interface methods, security and administrative control, application attributes, and characteristics – all can be controlled by manipulating database entries instead of using the more traditional hard-coded methodologies. The goal is to make the application more flexible in development, deployment, and operation by eliminating coding related to user interface deployments, individual screen configurations, and other application attributes associated with individual installations and even individual roles and users.

Progress Dynamics also includes a set of customizable environment managers that create a complete environment for running a distributed application. The managers handle session and context management, configuration, personalization, and localization. The development environment is fully integrated into the Progress AppBuilder.

Data Dictionary

The Progress Data Dictionary provides a complete set of menu-driven facilities for creating and maintaining database definitions, application defaults, and business rules. The Data Dictionary serves as a central storage mechanism for all database information, insulating you from the specific details of each database type and location.

All of the Progress ADE tools, as well as the Progress 4GL, use Data Dictionary defaults automatically when building new application components. Centrally defining and maintaining these defaults once in the Data Dictionary greatly reduces the amount of time it takes to create any individual piece of your application. A single change to a Dictionary definition is inherited by every application component that refers to the original definition. As a result, these central defaults promote application consistency, increase productivity, and reduce maintenance costs.

Procedure Editor

The Progress Procedure Editor allows you to quickly build, modify, and test all of your Progress application components. The Procedure Editor provides a full range of editing features, including file drag-and-drop, cut-and-paste, and search-and-replace, which allow you to make large-scale changes to several different programs quickly. As a result, you can work on multiple programs concurrently.

Database Administration

The Progress Database Administration facility allows you to perform a variety of database maintenance tasks, including dumping and loading data and definitions, exchanging definition information from non-Progress data sources, defining application security and permissions, and importing and exporting data from a variety of sources.

The Database Administration facility is useful for initially building an application database, as well as maintaining and tailoring a deployed database at a user site.

PRO*Tools

Progress PRO*Tools is a set of utility programs that assist you with developing and running Progress applications. They include the AppServer Session Information, Color Changer, Configuration Information, Database Connections, Font Changer, OS Prompt, Procedure Object Viewer, COM Object Viewer, ProtoGen, Run Procedure, PROPATH Editor, Screen Capture, Screen Scaling, Session Attributes, SmartObjects Conversion Utility, Window Viewer, and the Windows Information. The following highlight a few of the PRO*Tools:

Report Builder

Progress Report Builder is 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. Presentation features give you the ability to control fonts and colors, and to include images in your report. The report definitions you create are saved in a report library.

Results

Results is an interactive tool that lets end users with little or no programming experience query, report on, and maintain information stored in database tables. You, the application developer, can also customize Results according to the needs of individual sites, and then integrate it into your delivered applications.

Translation Manager

Progress provides the facilities you need to rapidly develop an application and systematically deploy it in numerous languages. The Progress Translation Manager allows you to translate an application into multiple languages without modifying the application’s original source code or the user interface. This greatly reduces the requirements for expensive quality assurance testing and can eliminate the need for separate source trees with their additional maintenance overhead. Once the translation process is complete, you can produce a single compiled version of an application that supports several languages, making application deployment and maintenance a straightforward task. Languages can be dynamically selected by Progress applications at run time, so the applications can support environments such as online kiosks, where users (and their language requirements) are continually changing.

Visual Translator

The Progress Visual Translator allows you to translate user-interface and reporting text phrases, such as labels, messages, and column headings to other languages. The Visual Translator lets you visualize the user-interface text so that you can choose the best translation based on both the semantic context for the text and the space available.

Application Compiler

The Progress Application Compiler is a tool for compiling individual source procedures or a group of procedures to produce executable code that is permanently stored.

Application Debugger

The Progress Application Debugger provides a complete set of facilities to help you locate and correct errors in application logic or data handling in any Progress application component.

The Debugger allows you to understand and track the flow of control in an application. You can examine the contents of the application’s buffers and variables, as well as state information and trace processing events. In turn, you can quickly and easily validate applications, thereby maximizing quality and shortening the time to application completion.

Online Help

Online help provides users with immediate access to information while working with a software application. Progress provides three ways to supply online help to application users: with help strings, ToolTips, and WinHelp or Microsoft HTML Help online help systems.


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