OpenEdge 11.2 is targeted for the first quarter of 2013, 11.3 follows somewhere between the second and third quarter 2013 and 11.4 at the end of 2013.

The planned features for OpenEdge 11.2 include:

Mobility:

• Visual Designer and UI toolkit for phone and tablet applications
• REST support for the OpenEdge application server
• JavaScript Data Binding support libraries
• One-click mobile app generation for ProDataset/Temp-Tables
• Write-once, run anywhere support (initially for iOS and Android)

Productivity and Performance

• Session-level Structured Error Handling
• Improved performance for AppServer invocations
• Support for SQL offset/fetch statements
• Progress Developer Studio: Scratch Editor
• Sub-Second PAUSE support for Processes from ABL

Platform coverage

• Windows 8, SQL Servers 2012 certification
• Eclipse 3.7 support

OpenEdge as a Service

In mid-2013 Progress will start to pilot OpenEdge as a Service, expanding the IaaS offering on Progress Arcade to additional on-demand services:

•  An aPaaS management console integration to configure instances of OpenEdge in the cloud
• Build and deploy mobile applications with an OpenEdge backend in the cloud
• Deployment of AppServer artifacts from Progress Developer Studio into cloud instances of OpenEdge
• Billing, metering and monitoring as platform services
• Managed Services: Progress managing your OpenEdge infrastructure components

aPaaS community

Also in mid-2013 Progress is planning to launch an aPaaS community as an evolution of Progress Arcade offerings. Planned are the simplification of cloud deployments though Progress aPaaS and that the OpenEdge community will become part of the aPaaS community effort.

Further components of the aPaaS community may become job offerings or an employee job finder.

Colleen also mentioned and Entrepreneur and Education program as part of the aPaaS community offerings including free development kits for educational and start-up entrepreneur usage.

Currently we cannot recommend anyone to use OpenEdge 11.1 with GUI for .NET at all!

We are in the process of further compatibility-testing. We will hopefully be able to release a version of the SmartComponent Library that is compatible with OpenEdge 11.1 soon. At the current our expectation however is, that this will require a hotfix from Progress Software as the issues seem to be related to the type management of the GUI for .NET bridge itself.

Some details to the issues found so far:

System.Exception handling

The first ABL regression issue is related to error handling. According to the GUI for .NET documentation .NET Exceptions can be CATCHed using a variable of the ABL Interface Progress.Lang.Error interface.

“In order to trap and handle .NET Exception objects in common with ABL error objects, OpenEdge has enhanced the .NET System.Exception class to implement the Progress.Lang.Error interface. Implementing this interface allows you to handle all .NET exceptions that are raised in the ABL context by both traditional and structured ABL error handling constructs.”

While in OpenEdge 11.1 the CATCH still works, passing it as a parameter to other routines (like the Consultingwerk.Util.ErrorHelper:ShowErrorMessage) ends in a runtime error:

A variable of class ‘System.ArgumentException’ cannot be assigned to a variable of class ‘Progress.Lang.Error’. (13448)

In OpenEdge 10.2B and OpenEdge 11.0 this still works as expected and documented. The issue in OpenEdge 11.1 causes a serious limitation to how we are able to handle .NET Exceptions in the ABL.

TYPE-OF malfunction with GUI for .NET hybrid types

The TYPE-OF function seems to misbehave when querying the type compatibility of a reference variable with a GUI for .NET hybrid type that has not yet instantiated.

Given TypeA and TypeB being two ABL GUI for .NET Forms the following code works fine on OpenEdge 11.0 but fails on OpenEdge 11.1:

DEFINE VARIABLE oForm AS Progress.Windows.Form NO-UNDO .

oForm = NEW FormA () .

MESSAGE TYPE-OF (oForm, FormB)

VIEW-AS ALERT-BOX.

oForm is a valid Form reference (containing an instance of FormA). The type-of check for FormB should return FALSE, but it creates a ABL runtime error instead (the source of the error is the GUI for .NET bridge code from Progress):

System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object

at Progress.ClrBridge.ClrApi.IsTypeOfByName(String type1Name, String type2Name)

at Progress.ClrBridge.ClrApi.IsTypeOf(Object anObject, String typeName, String qualName, String& objName)

at Progress.ClrBridge.BrgClrFromPro.isTypeOf(BrgClrFromPro* , Int32 , SByte* , SByte* , SByte* , Int32* )

Progress.Windows.Form property previousState removed

The Progress Form class does no longer contain the previousState property in OpenEdge 11.1. This property was never intended to be exposed publicly. See the notes about this in the readme.txt file in your OpenEdge 11.1 installation directory.

We were using this property in the Consultingwerk.Util.FormHelper class which did no longer compile on OpenEdge 11.1. We have removed the code (using conditional compilation) that was using this property. We will investigate an alternative to achieve the same functionality.

If your code relies on the previousState property, you will have to make appropriate changes to your code as well.

Actual Instrumentation no longer available in OpenEdge 11.1

Due to the plans to divest the Actional product line, Progress Software does no longer support the Actual Instrumentation and the relevant functionality (include files and ABL class file) are no longer shipped with OpenEdge 11.1. We have therefor removed (using conditional compilation) all references to those include files and classes from our code as well.

Please contact Progress Software when you have questions or concerns regarding the support for Actional in your OpenEdge application.

We will keep you updated once we know more!

http://www.consultingwerk.de/fileadmin/user_upload/CustomizingOpenEdgeArchitect/Customizing_OpenEdge_Architect.pdf

The sample code can be downloaded here:

http://www.consultingwerk.de/fileadmin/user_upload/ExtremeWindowsDesktop/ExtremeWindowsDesktopIntegration_Samples.zip

The OpenEdge Architect project is currently set up for OpenEdge 11, however the source code should be compatible with OpenEdge 10.2B as well. If you are going to use the files with OpenEdge 10.2B make sure to update the contained assemblies.xml file so that it matches the version of the Infragistics/OpenEdge Ultra Controls you are using.

The slides from the workshop can be downloaded here:

http://www.consultingwerk.de/fileadmin/user_upload/ExtremeWindowsDesktop/Extreme_Windows_Desktop_Integration.pdf

The first opportunity is the 16^th of April with the Progress Technologie Happen (English Technology-Bites, http://www.prgtechupdates.de/de/) session hosted by Progress Software Germany in Cologne. Mike Fechner will be presenting various opportunities to modernize Progress or OpenEdge based applications using object orientation, GUI for .NET, the OpenEdge Reference Architecture, mobile devices or OpenEdge BPM / Savvion / Progress Control Tower. This session was very successfully hosted by Progress Software in the UK on two February dates in London and Leeds.

On the 24th of April Mike Fechner will be hosting a workshop on “Extreme Windows Desktop Integration” at the PUG UK spring conference (http://www.puguk.org). In this Progress Arcade cloud based workshop you’ll have the chance to experience how easy it is with OpenEdge 11 to use .NET technology from any Progress application running under OpenEdge 11 to become a first class citizen on the Windows Desktop. See http://puguk.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=210&Itemid=102 for details.

Later that week Marko Rüterbories will be attending the inaugural meeting of the Hungarian Progress user group in Budapest on the 27th of April and will present our OpenEdge modernization and productivity solutions WinKit and the SmartComponent Library. The website of the Hungarian PUG can be found at http://pug.hu

On the 4^th of May Mike Fechner will be giving a presentation at the German PUG meeting in Hamburg. Details about this event can be found at the PUG Germany homepage at http://www.pug.de/xoops/modules/news/article.php?storyid=64

The German PUG meeting is followed by the PUG Challenge Americas conference in Westford, MA from the 6^th to the 9^th of May (http://pugchallenge.org). Mike Fechner will be holding three break-out presentations. Consultingwerk will also be showcasing our OpenEdge application modernization and productivity tools at our booth at the solutions Expo. Consultingwerk is commercial sponsor of the PUG Challenge Americas Conference. If you want to talk to us, please hurry up! Due to scheduling conflicts we won’t be able to attend the PUG Challenge Americas conference on the Wednesday.

In June Marko Rüterebories and Mike Fechner will be attending the Nordic PUG Conference on the Åland Island in the Baltic Sea on the 14^th and 15^th of June (http://pugnordic.org/). Consultingwerk is commercial sponsor of the conference and will giving two technical breakout sessions as well as product presentations of the SmartComponent Library framework for GUI for .NET, mobile devices, OpenEdge BPM and Web and the WinKit. Consultingwerk will also be showcasing at the solutions expo during the conference.

If none of these dates work for you, don’t hesitate to drop us a line at info@consultingwerk.de – and we’ll find a way to give you an individual presentation online or in person.

See http://pugchallenge.org/agenda.html for details.

Mike Fechner will be presenting on the following topics:

• Cross-Platform Mobile Phone Development (iPhone, iPad, Android) for OpenEdge Back-Ends Using .NET
• Customizing OpenEdge Architect (for non Java-Developers!)
• What is GUI for .NET and Why Aren’t I Using It? (or GUI for .NET for Dummies)

Critical Alert: Issues migrating applications that use ActiveX/COM objects to OpenEdge 11: http://progresscustomersupport-survey.force.com/OpenEdgeKB/articles/Critical_Alert/000028532

Due to a change to the latest Microsoft Visual Studio compiler that Progress Software is using for building the OpenEdge client products and the activation of additional security settings (DEP, Data Execution Prevention) some Active X Controls may fail to execute properly in OpenEdge GUI applications after migrating to OpenEdge 11. Those issues are not specific to the OpenEdge client and can be seen with other C++ applications built using the latest Microsoft Visual Studio compiler and the same security settings.

As the knowledge base article suggests, as the application programmer you need to check with your Active X Control vendor if they have a more recent version of their Controls available that complies with the DEP security settings of the Visual Studio Compiler.

Another alternative – especially advisable when the Active X Control vendor does not provide a more recent version of the Control in question – is to consider migrating parts of your application or the whole application to the OpenEdge GUI for .NET. Our WinKit toolkit and consulting services simplify the integration of any existing OpenEdge GUI application into the GUI for .NET. Our WinKit will replace standard elements of the classical OpenEdge GUI with Infragistics .NET Controls (OpenEdge UltraControls) and embed other GUI elements into .NET Forms in a way that leaves the existing screen- und business logic mostly unchanged. The migrated application provides a platform for further integration of .NET features and Controls. As such the migrated application provides an optimal starting point to replace Active X Controls with .NET Controls.

Active X Controls working properly in the classic OpenEdge GUI of OpenEdge 11 will also work with embedded windows and the WinKit. So when using the WinKit a change from using Active X Controls to .NET Controls is only required when your Active X Control vendor does not provide you with an updated version or you are seeing other technical benefits from migrating certain Active X Controls to .NET Controls (like enhanced functionality or a more recent look and feel).

Questions? Interested? Please use the feedback form, check out http://www.consultingwerk.de/winkit/ or email us at info@consultingwerk.de

In any case we do recommend that everybody using Active X Controls checks with their Control vendor long before migrating to OpenEdge 11 if their Controls are compatible with Visual Studio 2010 and DEP (Data Execution Prevention). Certainly a combination known to every support organization at every Active X Control vendor…

For the time being every Form that has been created or just opened with the 10.2B05 OpenEdge Architect Visual Designer will write code like this to the InitializeComponent method:

bindingSource1:UseFullFieldNames = FALSE.

This will fail to compile on OpenEdge 10.2B Service Pack 4 and earlier releases! So your source code is no longer backwards compatible and this makes the management of deployments (especially of hot fixes ships to your end customers) much more complicated. The compile time error message indicating this issue is something like this:

Could not locate element ‘UseFullFieldNames’ in class ‘Progress.Data.BindingSource’. (12979)

It’s absolutely safe to just remove the lines that set the UseFullFieldNames property to False from the InitializeComponent method. However this needs to be done over and over again as the OpenEdge Architect Visual Designer will keep on adding it to the source code.

Progress support has confirmed this issue and we expect that this annoyance will be fixed with OpenEdge 10.2B Service Pack 6 and OpenEdge 11.1.0.

However when you set the value of the UseFullFieldNames to True in the Visual Designer you have intentionally given up the source code compatibility with Service Pack 4 and before anyway. So we recommend that you carefully line up the usage of this feature with your deployment strategy anyway…

For your reference and convenience we are presenting here the presentation slides and sample material where appropriate for download.

Marko Rüterbories – Extreme Windows Desktop Integration

Windows is still the most relevant platform for desktop applications. With the introduction of the GUI for .NET the ability to use the .NET framework to interact with Windows desktop resources is simpler and more sophisticated than ever and accessible for everybody developing classic OpenEdge GUI or GUI for .NET applications. In this session Marko Rüterbories will give practical introductions and provide downloadable examples for using the .NET technology to access the Windows API, including starting, querying and stopping external processes, file system operations, Drag and Drop to and from the Windows Explorer, Drag and Drop to Microsoft Office applications like Outlook or Word, using Windows 7 advanced taskbar features (jumplists and overlay icons), notify icons and desktop alerts. Using these features the end user will experience a richer integration of the ABL application into the Windows Desktop as well as practical productivity gains.

Mike Fechner – OpenEdge and OpenEdge BPM Cross-Plattform mobile phone development (iPhone, iPad, Android and .NET) using .NET

You end users demand good user interfaces on their mobile devices? AJAX does not sizzle? Offline capabilities? Looking at the numbers of good quality apps in today’s mobile phone appstores there is no doubt that mobile phone applications are a huge market. In my consulting activities I have met almost no Progress partner that says we do not need mobile apps at all… But how? The two big players in the field (Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android) are built using completely different platforms and tools and do not allow any common code. Microsoft’s Windows Phone might become the third relevant player. .NET might be the solution! The session introduces .NET mobile phone development for iOS, Android and Windows Phone, how it allows code reuse and how it can be connected to OpenEdge, OpenEdge BPM and Savvion applications.

Mike Fechner & Marko Rüterbories: OpenEdge Architect – Getting Started & Practical Tips Workshop

In this practical hands-on workshop we will cover the basic steps of moving from an AppBuilder / Progress Procedure Editor based development scenario to OpenEdge Architect and highlight strategies for using both tools at the same time. We will introduce and use some of OpenEdge Architect’s coolest productivity features and discover challenges and solutions for using OpenEdge Architect in a team of developers.

Commercial presentation: SmartComponent Library

The SmartComponent Library delivers true productivity when developing OpenEdge Reference Architecture (OERA) compliant applications using OpenEdge GUI for .NET and the Visual Designer. It brings data-centric design to OpenEdge Architect with flexible wizards and templates as well as rich and powerful foundation classes and allows focussing on what’s really important. Recent additions to the framework allow the extension of user interfaces to mobile devices such and iPhone, iPad and Android devices. The tight integration of the OpenEdge BPM completes the feature list. This presentation will give an overview of the SmartComponent Library capabilities and the design process and demonstrate the integration of the OpenEdge BPM and the Apple iPad.

Commercial presentation: WinKit – Modernise your ABL GUI

The WinKit is the unique tool to simplify the adoption of OpenEdge GUI for .NET in existing OpenEdge GUI applications. The WinKit uses the new user interface technology to enhance the visual appearance of any existing OpenEdge GUI applications with features and components like modern toolbars or Ribbon controls, Dockable Panes, powerful Grids, TabFolders and optionally MDI. The WinKit has been designed to integrate into any framework and application architecture.

This demonstration will provide an overview of the capabilities of the WinKit and how it can be used to improve the capabilities of every Progress or OpenEdge application as well as present examples from real-world projects that have been migrated using the WinKit.