Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Development:
Progress Dynamics Web Development Guide

Preface

This Preface contains the following sections:

Purpose
Audience
Organization
Using this manual
Typographical conventions
OpenEdge messages

Purpose

This guide describes the features in Progress Dynamics® that allow developers to run Progress Dynamics applications in Web browsers. It also describes how to customize and adapt those applications to make them more suitable for display in a Web browser. In addition, this guide provides information on how to set up an application development environment to create and run Web applications.

Audience

This guide is designed for Web application programmers who are familiar with the Progress Dynamics application development environment. Knowledge of HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, and JavaScript is necessary to understand the material in this guide.

Organization

Chapter 1 "Introducing Web Application Development with Progress Dynamics"

Provides a general description of Web application development using Progress Dynamics.

Chapter 2 "Progress Dynamics Web Architecture"

Describes how the components of Progress Dynamics work together to run Web applications.

Chapter 3 "Setting Up Progress Dynamics for Running Web Applications"

Describes how to set up the Progress Dynamics environment, Progress®WebSpeed®, and Web servers in order to run Web applications.

Chapter 4 "Progress Dynamics Web Applications"

Describes how to create, run, and deploy Progress Dynamics Web applications.

Chapter 5 "Customizing with Dynamic HTML"

Describes how to use HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, and JavaScript, to customize Progress Dynamics for a Web browser environment.

Chapter 6 "Server-side Business Logic and Client Logic"

Describes how to use server-side business logic and client logic in Progress Dynamics Web applications.

Appendix A, "JavaScript API Reference"

Describes the JavaScript API, which can be used for customizing Web applications.

Using this manual

Before you read this guide, you should complete the tutorial in OpenEdge Development: Progress Dynamics Getting Started . When you complete the tutorial, you will have a number of example application objects that you can run as Web applications. You can also use the example application objects when experimenting with customizations. If you have developed your own Progress Dynamics application, you can experiment with running your application as a Web application, instead of using examples developed in the tutorial.

Typographical conventions

This manual uses the following typographical conventions:

Convention	Description
Bold	Bold typeface indicates commands or characters the user types, provides emphasis, or the names of user interface elements.
Italic	Italic typeface indicates the title of a document, or signifies new terms.
SMALL, BOLD CAPITAL LETTERS	Small, bold capital letters indicate OpenEdge® key functions and generic keyboard keys; for example, GET and CTRL.
KEY1+KEY2	A plus sign between key names indicates a simultaneous key sequence: you press and hold down the first key while pressing the second key. For example, CTRL+X.
KEY1 KEY2	A space between key names indicates a sequential key sequence: you press and release the first key, then press another key. For example, ESCAPE H.
Syntax:
Fixed width	A fixed-width font is used in syntax statements, code examples, system output, and filenames.
Fixed-width italics	Fixed-width italics indicate variables in syntax statements.
Fixed-width bold	Fixed-width bold indicates variables with special emphasis.
UPPERCASE fixed width	Uppercase words are Progress® 4GL language keywords. Although these are always shown in uppercase, you can type them in either uppercase or lowercase in a procedure.
	This icon (three arrows) introduces a multi-step procedure.
	This icon (one arrow) introduces a single-step procedure.

OpenEdge messages

OpenEdge displays several types of messages to inform you of routine and unusual occurrences:

Execution messages inform you of errors encountered while OpenEdge is running a procedure; for example, if OpenEdge cannot find a record with a specified index field value.
Compile messages inform you of errors found while OpenEdge is reading and analyzing a procedure before running it; for example, if a procedure references a table name that is not defined in the database.
Startup messages inform you of unusual conditions detected while OpenEdge is getting ready to execute; for example, if you entered an invalid startup parameter.

After displaying a message, OpenEdge proceeds in one of several ways:

Continues execution, subject to the error-processing actions that you specify or that are assumed as part of the procedure. This is the most common action taken after execution messages.
Returns to the Progress Procedure Editor, so you can correct an error in a procedure. This is the usual action taken after compiler messages.
Halts processing of a procedure and returns immediately to the Progress Procedure Editor. This does not happen often.
Terminates the current session.

OpenEdge messages end with a message number in parentheses. In this example, the message number is 200:

** Unknown table name table. (200)

If you encounter an error that terminates OpenEdge, note the message number before restarting.

Obtaining more information about OpenEdge messages

In Windows platforms, use OpenEdge online help to obtain more information about OpenEdge messages. Many OpenEdge tools include the following Help menu options to provide information about messages:

Choose Help Recent Messages to display detailed descriptions of the most recent OpenEdge message and all other messages returned in the current session.
Choose Help Messages and then type the message number to display a description of a specific OpenEdge message.
In the Progress Procedure Editor, press the HELP key or F1.