Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
ADM and SmartObjects

ADM properties

A basic requirement of SmartObjects is that each SmartObject can expose its properties to other objects, either Progress procedures or non-Progress application objects communicating through the Open4GL interface. Within a Progress session, it is not practical to use SHARED variables or buffers to share values between SmartObjects. SmartObjects are run as persistent procedures, which means they run as peers of one another and have no fixed execution hierarchy; therefore, the SHARED mechanism does not work well. Also, there is no way to use SHARED values between a client and non-Progress application components.

The ADM supports properties through these mechanisms:

The ADMProps temp-table for object property definitions and storage.
Property-specific get and set functions.
The setUserProperty and getUserProperty functions for dynamic properties.

The first two mechanisms, which establish static properties, share a common syntax and can be used interchangeably. They return property values with the native data type, so their use is recommended when you need properties in custom super procedures that will become part of an object type. Dynamic properties, in contrast, return property values as strings that might need conversion to other data types, so this mechanism is most appropriate for properties that will be used only once in your application. The rest of this chapter describes these mechanisms, as well as related topics.

Some special property considerations apply when you are building new SmartObject classes and or extending existing classes. For details, see Chapter 8, " Developing ADM Extensions."