ABL-derived forms can be containers for .NET Windows Forms UI and non-UI controls. .NET contains a variety of controls that you can add to forms—controls that display text boxes, buttons, drop-down boxes, radio buttons, and even Web pages. From a coding perspective a .NET form is made up of a set of controls.
GUI for .NET controls can also come from several different areas, the difference being in how you obtain the control:
Microsoft .NET UI Controls. This is the OpenEdge name for the .NET Framework controls that are installed as visual design components.
OpenEdge Ultra Controls for .NET (Ultra Controls), based on Infragistics NetAdvantage for Windows Forms.
OpenEdge .NET controls / components:
Window Container control (Progress.Windows.WindowContainer).
User control (Progress.Windows.UserControl).
ProBindingSource control (Progress.Data.ProBindingSource) for binding data to a control.
Other 3rd party .NET Windows Forms controls.
ABL-derived .NET custom controls: user controls and inherited controls.
Control vendors normally provide detailed documentation and help on using their controls. While this documentation is often written assuming the use of a .NET language, the description of a control and its properties and events are all relevant for its use in ABL. You can access this documentation in the following ways:
Visit the vendor's website. For example, to obtain more information on Microsoft .NET UI Controls and all .NET object types available with the .NET Framework version 4.0, see the Class Library reference documentation at the following location: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg145045.aspx
Open the control in the OpenEdge Class Browser to see control definitions using a modified ABL syntax.
Press F1 after you place the control on the form within Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge Visual Designer. The online help opens on the respective vendor site.
Microsoft .NET UI Controls. This is the OpenEdge name for the .NET Framework controls that are installed as visual design components.
