Progress
Open Client
Developer’s Guide
Architecture
The Open Client architecture allows Open Clients to access Progress AppServer functionality that is organized into separate 4GL source files (usually procedure
.p files
,.w
files or both).There are several components involved in exposing AppServer functionality for Open Clients. Figure 1–1 shows the basic components of an Open Client application and provides a high level illustration of the different communication paths an Open Client can use to access an AppServer on a company intranet or over the Internet.
Figure 1–1: Open Client Architecture
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The client programmer writes the client application in Java, Visual Basic, or a compatible language. This application executes remote procedures and functions in an AppServer session through methods on a proxy object that you generate using the Open Client Proxy Generator (ProxyGen). ProxyGen is an Open Client tool that generates proxies for Java and ActiveX Open Client applications. The proxy objects are implemented in Java and use the Open Client Runtime to access the AppServer. For more information about using ProxyGen to generate proxies, see "Preparing To Generate Proxies" in Configuration and Deployment."
A key feature of the Open Client is full support for relational data exchange. This allows 4GL TEMP-TABLE parameters to be passed between the AppServer and the client, and exposed in the client as result set objects. In this way, Open Client applications can access any Progress database or DataServer that is connected and exposed by the AppServer application.
The types of supported Open Clients include Java applications, Java applets, and ActiveX Automation Controllers. For Java, ProxyGen generates proxy objects as Java classes. For ActiveX, ProxyGen generates proxy objects as Automation objects. Proxies packaged as Automation objects are accessible from any ActiveX Automation Controller. However, this manual presents all ActiveX examples using Visual Basic source code.
If you want to run your Open Client application across the Internet using HTTPS (SSL), you must include digital certificates with your application. The Open Client Toolkit includes the Certificate Management Tool (
procertm
utility) that provides a way to import, export and remove certificates to and from.jar
and.zip
files. For more information, see "Certificate Management Utility."
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