Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
AppBuilder

> ## Anatomy of a database application

> Although each application differs greatly in detail, there is an underlying framework that can be represented as:

> - Finding certain records in a database.

> - Displaying them.

> - Modifying them.

> - Updating the records in the database.

> Finding records involves opening a database file and searching through it for records that have certain characteristics. The desired characteristics are defined in a query. A query might be as simple as “get all records” or highly complex, involving comparisons on many different fields in a multitude of records.

> Records returned by a query can be displayed in tabular format for easy browsing, formatted in a more complex way suitable for editing, or used to generate, for example, mailing labels.

> Modifying a record is a simple clerical process on one level. But because humans are involved, mistakes are virtually guaranteed to occur. A careful developer will account for this fact and take steps to check the changes being made, insofar as checking is practical.

> Once changes have been made, the modified records must be written back to the database. This can be done immediately, for simple updates, or buffered to a staging area as part of a more complex transaction process.

> AppBuilder supports objects that address all four steps in this framework.

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