The traditional client/server model requires a connection from the ABL client to the database server. PAS for OpenEdge allows alternative strategies to be considered. One strategy is for the ABL client to have no connection to the database and for all database access to be achieved through the PAS for OpenEdge instance. Such an implementation provides tighter security since database access is limited to the parameters, and functionality contained in the procedures that are remotely executed on the server.

A less severe strategy is to allow the ABL client read-only access to the database, but provide full update access to the server session. This preserves full control of updates through the restricted set of procedures that can be run in the server session, yet allows the client a broader range of database query capabilities. This alternative might be required to achieve certain performance objectives, for example, those peculiar to ABL browse widget behavior. See ABL browse design considerations for detailed information about browse behavior.