An Overview of OpenEdge high-level application architecture

Application architecture defines how your application code is structured and how the different parts of the application communicate. You should define your application architecture so that it is easy to understand, especially for developers who collaborate with you to develop or maintain the application.

When you design an application, the best practice is to separate your application into logical units for distribution across multiple physical computers. At a minimum, the units include the client side of the application, the business logic, and business data.

The client provides the primary interaction point for the user of an application and delivers information using any of a number of appropriate user interface technologies (graphical, web/browser, PDA, etc). This business logic provides for the processing of information for the application. This includes application logic for business rules and complex analytical processing.

The separation into units enables you to reduce maximize code reuse. For example, if an algorithm change affects how your business logic executes, you do not have to modify code for the client or business data areas of your application. The logical partitioning of the user interface and application logic in a distributed architecture also allows for the physical separation of the application across multiple computers.

In the OpenEdge application architecture, you separate your application into functional components (user-client, business logic and business data). This recommended application architecture is called the OpenEdge Reference Architecture (OERA).