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

OpenEdge Open Clients

OpenEdge provides tools that allow you to:

Build a .NET or Java application that runs as an AppServer client. Such a client application accesses the AppServer application service in a manner that models the way a Progress 4GL client accesses an AppServer application service.
Build a Web service based on an AppServer application service that is accessible from any industry Web service client. Because such a Web service is based on Progress 4GL technology, OpenEdge refers to it as a Progress 4GL Web service (analogous to a Java Web service built with Java technology).

In OpenEdge, .NET or Java AppServer clients and Progress 4GL Web services share common features that make them all Open Clients of the AppServer. The two most important features of Open Clients are that:

They all rely on a common client interface definition to model access to 4GL procedures called the Open Client object model.
The client interface for each Open Client can be defined using the Open Client Proxy Generator (ProxyGen), the essential tool of the Open Client Toolkit.

This chapter describes these common features in the following sections:

Overview of the Open Client object model
Overview of the Open Client Toolkit