Type RDBMS | License Proprietary | |
Stable release OpenEdge 11.6 / October 26, 2015; 16 months ago (2015-10-26) Operating system Website | ||
OpenEdge Advanced Business Language, or OpenEdge ABL for short, is a business application development language created and maintained by Progress Software Corporation (PSC). The language, typically classified as a fourth-generation programming language, uses an English-like syntax to simplify software development. The language was called PROGRESS or Progress 4GL up until version 9, but in 2006 PSC changed the name to OpenEdge Advanced Business Language (OpenEdge ABL) in order to overcome a presumed industry perception that 4GLs were less capable than other languages. A subset of the language, called SpeedScript, is used in the development of web applications.
Contents
OpenEdge ABL helps developers to develop applications optionally using its own integrated relational database and programming tool. These applications are portable across computing systems and allow access to various popular data sources without having to learn the underlying data access methods. This means that the end-user of these products can be unaware of the underlying architecture.
By combining a fourth generation language and relational database, OpenEdge ABL allows the use of the Rapid Application Development (RAD) model for developing software. A programmer and even end users can do rapid prototyping using the integrated and GUI tools of the development environment.
History
December 2011
OpenEdge 11.0 release introducing patent-pending multi-tenancy, multi-Cloud deployment options and extended platform support.
June 2012:
OpenEdge 11.1 release providing performance and productivity tools for the development of SaaS (software as a service) and Cloud applications. It also delivers stronger security coupled with simplified user authentication.
February 2013:
OpenEdge 11.2 release provided enhanced mobility capabilities through: visual designer and UI toolkit for phone and tablet applications, REST support for the OpenEdge application server, JavaScript Data Binding support libraries, and write-once, run anywhere support for iOS and Android;
Summer 2013:
OpenEdge 11.3 release
August 2014:
OpenEdge 11.4 release containing horizontal table partitioning and ABL Unit Testing.
17 December 2014:
OpenEdge 11.5 release containing the Pacific Application Server for OpenEdge.
26 October 2015:
OpenEdge 11.6 release
Syntax and semantics
Progress ABL is a strongly typed, late-bound, English-like programming language. Although initially designed as a procedural language, starting with version 10.1 it was enhanced with object-oriented grammar elements, which can be mixed with the original procedural style. A block of code may have a transaction scoped to it, in which case database changes will be committed when it completes. An error raised within such a block will undo these changes. These defaults may be overridden by the programmer.
Simple programs run without a Graphical User Interface, but there is syntax to create one programatically; or programmers can use the provided tools to build one.
Hello World
The following ABL code creates a window with the text "Hello, World!" and a button labelled "OK".
A message-box can be used to achieve the same effect:
Also, you can use ERROR and WARNING instead of INFO to change the message icons.
The simplest "Hello, World" program, though, is this:
SQL SELECT equivalent
The SQL statement:
(along with your chosen language connection and display procedures) can be expressed in Progress / ABL as:
The END statement is optional in a program of this level of simplicity.
SQL UPDATE equivalent
The SQL statement:
(again, along with your chosen language connection and display procedures) can be expressed in Progress / ABL as:
.. (Some assumptions have been made about indexing, locking and transaction scoping in order to keep this example simple.)