The OpenEdge Hive

The Enterprise Architect product from Sparx Systems is emerging as the preferred UML modeling tool at many OpenEdge sites. In order to make it easy for people to get started using this powerful tool, information will be collected here to assist people in this process.

Overview
Given the need to enhance or transform a large existing ABL application, one is often hampered in the task by limited or out of date documentation. This project seeks to create a tool set that will read existing ABL code and the corresponding database to build a UML model of the application. This model can then be used for analysis and potentially can serve as the basis for future changes.

This project will consist of three stages:
1. Defining a UML "Profile" for ABL so that there are appropriate UML stereotypes to express the structural realities and relationships of ABL code and the corresponding dictionary.
2. Creating a tool for loading Progress dictionary information into a UML modeling tool using these stereotypes.
3. Creating a tool which will read and analyze ABL code and then load this information into a UML modeling tool using the stereotypes of the Profile.

The OpenEdge Reference Architecture (OERA) describes an overall structure and pattern for the architecture of modern applications, but does not in itself specify any particular implementation. Progress Software (PSC) has generated a series of whitepapers over recent years which discuss various aspects of this architecture with some sample code, but this code is limited in scope and there is no pretense of it illustrating production-ready techniques. More recently, PSC introduced AutoEdge, an “application example” meant to illustrate one way in which OERA principles might be applied in a real application, but it too is built on a number of simplifying assumptions and does not pretend to offer production ready code on which customers might build real systems without significant further work.

Purpose

PSC has created AutoEdge as an example application example to illustrate the OpenEdge Reference Architecture. The idea and purpose of AutoEdge is to provide practical definition and examples of OERA and illustrates many aspects of modern ABL and Sonic code and technique. AutoEdge is what an application, with certain ‘business requirements’, might look like if architected and designed following the OERA guidelines.