This manual describes how to access .NET objects using ABL to implement the OpenEdge® GUI for .NET in your OpenEdge applications. Without the GUI for .NET, ABL provides a native, handle-based, object model that supports built-in visual objects (widgets) that you can use to build a window-based GUI. This traditional OpenEdge GUI provides many of the features of a modern GUI. However, even with support for ActiveX controls, the traditional OpenEdge GUI does not provide the extensibility and flexibility of a GUI that you can build using the Microsoft .NET Framework.
In addition to its built-in handle-based object model, ABL also supports a class-based object model that allows you to build user-defined classes similar to classes in Java or .NET. OpenEdge further extends the ABL class-based object model to include classes built using the Microsoft .NET Framework. Using the Microsoft (and other third-party) .NET classes, you can build an extensible and flexible GUI (the OpenEdge GUI for .NET). In addition, OpenEdge supports its own .NET object types to provide a more natural integration of the GUI for .NET with both the traditional OpenEdge GUI and ABL data.
This manual describes how ABL supports .NET object types in an ABL compile-time and run-time environment. It then describes how you can access .NET classes in assemblies entirely from within an ABL session, where you can work with them in the same way as ABL user-defined classes and interfaces. In addition, this support for the GUI for .NET includes features of .NET objects not currently supported for ABL user-defined objects. Thus, this manual explains how to build ABL applications and GUIs using .NET objects without having to go outside the ABL environment or use any native .NET languages.
Note that this documentation does not replace and, in fact, depends upon both Microsoft and third-party vendor documentation for understanding the .NET classes that vendors provide.
In addition to this manual, which describes how to use the basic ABL elements for programming with the OpenEdge GUI for .NET, you can find more information on using this feature in the following manuals:
OpenEdge Getting Started: GUI for .NET Primer — A brief overview of the OpenEdge GUI for .NET and the class-based ABL that supports it.
OpenEdge Development: ABL Reference — The complete reference to the ABL, including all language elements that support the GUI for .NET.
OpenEdge Development: GUI for .NET Mapping Reference — A short reference to ABL elements and features of the GUI for .NET both as they map to the terminology and C# language syntax of the Microsoft .NET Framework, and as they map to ABL elements and features of the traditional OpenEdge GUI.
OpenEdge Deployment: Managing ABL Applications — A guide to managing and deploying ABL applications, with sections on requirements and features for deploying GUI for .NET applications.
OpenEdge Getting Started: GUI for .NET Primer — A brief overview of the OpenEdge GUI for .NET and the class-based ABL that supports it.