Progress: The open edge

Progress started in 1980 as the Data Language Corporation. Over the years the company has evolved to what we now know as Progress. QBCon mostly works with Progress' OpenEdge product, which consists of advanced business language (ABL) and databases.

Progress has added a lot of other products to its range, including Sonic enterprise service bus (ESB), Apam and Datastore. We incorporate some of the other Progress products with our business solutions, with great success.

ABL has expanded and streamlined programming functionality by allowing for object-orientated methodology. ABL also introduced structured error handling in the latest releases, which allows for more control over internal processes.

ABL does have some restrictions. For example, an ABL session is single threaded. Other languages, like JAVA, give multi-thread capability. However, this problem can be overcome by using multiple connections to application servers.

The primary focus of ABL is business oriented programming. The interface between the database and the language simplifies tasks like retrieving, updating and displaying data. Compared to other SQL-type languages, the interface can cut workload in half.

Business oriented programming allows us to develop and customise software accurately over a shorter time.

Interfacing to other systems or hardware is not as simple in ABL. Products like ESB provide a solution here. We have used the ESB to establish communication between different systems, like C# and the Avaya telephone management system. We've even managed communication between ABL systems that are deployed over widely distributed areas. Monitoring widely distributed systems also becomes a daunting task. By using products like Apama, this process can be greatly simplified.

Over the past 15 years, we've come to realise Progress OpenEdge gives us the edge in a market where time is money.