Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Getting Started:
Application and Integration Services

Physical connections

In a physical connection, both a specific client session and a specific AppServer that provides the application service are connected and functionally aware of each other. The client session invokes a remote procedure or user-defined function that is supported by the application service for execution on the AppServer to which it is connected. This allows the AppServer to maintain context for the client session between requests for as long as the two remain connected. A physical connection has varying degrees of mutual session awareness and context management facility, depending on the chosen AppServer operating mode.

The following operating modes support physical connections:

State-aware
State-reset
Stateless

All these operating modes and their physical connections support an application service session model known as session-managed.

For more information on the:

State-aware, state-reset, and stateless operating modes, see the information on understanding AppServer operating modes in OpenEdge Application Server: Developing AppServer Applications .
Session-managed application model, see the information on session models and application services in OpenEdge Application Server: Developing AppServer Applications .

OpenEdge supports physical connections for all client types, but in a special manner for Web service clients, because client connections to all Web services are inherently logical (see the "Logical connection components" section).