In addition to mapping ProDataSet components, OpenEdge maps relevant attributes of ProDataSet components for use in a .NET Open Client. These ABL attributes are similar to .NET properties and some of them map to actual ADO.NET properties.

Attributes on ProDataSet and related ABL components are similar to object properties. They allow you to query and modify information for these components in ABL. Many of these attributes are not meaningful in the .NET environment and require no mapping by OpenEdge. Among those attributes that are meaningful, some correspond to equivalent ADO.NET properties that already maintain the same information for equivalent .NET objects. Still others require some form of mapping by OpenEdge in order to maintain the corresponding information in ADO.NET.

For those ABL attributes that require mapping, OpenEdge maps some of them to existing ADO.NET properties. For other attributes, OpenEdge provides static methods on a Progress.Open4GL.ProDataSet utility class that allow you to maintain these values in the corresponding ADO.NET DataSet.

Note: Progress.Open4GL.ProDataSet participates in the class hierarchy of strongly-typed DataSet classes generated by ProxyGen. However, you only use Progress.Open4GL.ProDataSet directly as a utility class in order to access its static methods.

The following sections describe the attribute mappings supported by OpenEdge using existing ADO.NET properties or OpenEdge ProDataSet class methods. For more information on mappings where OpenEdge provides a ProDataSet class method, see the corresponding method description in ProDataSet class methods.