WebSpeed® is an ABL (Advanced Business Language) development and deployment environment.
This documentation supports the "classic" WebSpeed implementation, where a third party Web server is required to host the WebSpeed Messenger that responds to client requests.
In OpenEdge 11.6 and later releases, the Progress Application Server (PAS) for OpenEdge is available as a host for WebSpeed applications. It integrates the functionality of a Web server, the WebSpeed Transaction server, and an AppServer in a single PAS for OpenEdge instance. As a platform for WebSpeed applications, PAS for OpenEdge has many advantages, including improvements in performance, scalability, and security.
Note that you can migrate existing WebSpeed applications to PAS for OpenEdge, or you can use the Progress Developer Studio for OpenEdge to develop new WebSpeed applications that run on PAS for OpenEdge.
See Progress Application Server for OpenEdge: Introducing PAS for OpenEdge for more information on the advantages of using PAS for OpenEdge.
WebSpeed allows you to build applications that use HTML, XML, WML, DHTML, and most other mark-up languages (MLs) as the user interface. This means that WebSpeed can be used for applications where users are accessing the application using:
A Web browser (HTML, DHTML, or XML).
A mobile/cell-phone (HTML, WML).
A system making requests for information using XML and HTTP or HTTP/S as the transport protocol.
In addition to building Web-based applications by design, you can use WebSpeed to Web-enable existing OpenEdge applications that previously ran stand-alone or as an OpenEdge AppServer™-based application.
With WebSpeed, you can develop and deploy:
Intranet applications that allow internal users to access and modify data.
Internet applications that allow external, consumer access (for example, a shopping cart application).
A Web browser (HTML, DHTML, or XML).
