OpenEdge supports object-oriented programming concepts common in other object-oriented languages such as Java. Using the same underlying ABL, procedural and object-oriented programing models can seamlessly coexist to leverage the best of both approaches.

When you develop an ABL class, you define data members to represent the data and methods to represent the behaviors. An ABL class is a definition of how a user, system, or object will behave at runtime. In your application, you write code to create instances of a class. At runtime, the instance is populated with data and is capable of executing the desired methods, depending on the use case.

For example, you can create a Customers class that represents customers and their associated set of orders. An instance of Customers is created to represent a customer or set of customers.