The following figure is a general illustration of the components in an implementation of OpenEdge REST Web services.

Figure 1. OpenEdge REST Web services architecture


As illustrated in the above figure, the components of an OpenEdge REST application deployment can be grouped in four distinct functional areas:

  • AppServers — The ABL business logic that is accessed by OpenEdge REST applications resides on one or more AppServers.
  • Web Server — OpenEdge REST applications are Web Application Archive (WAR) files that reside in a Java Servlet Container on a Web server. OpenEdge REST applications interpret incoming HTTP requests from REST client applications and return results from ABL business logic executed by AppServers.

    The Web server's Java Servlet Container is also the host of the OpenEdge REST Management Agent, which is an OpenEdge REST application that you can optionally install. It enables the management of other of the OpenEdge REST applications through OpenEdge utilities.

  • Management Tools — The interfaces to the REST Management Agent on the Web server are the command line utility, RESTMAN, and the browser-based OpenEdge Explorer/OpenEdge Management tools.
  • Clients — OpenEdge REST clients can reside on a variety of devices, including servers, desktop, and mobile devices (especially using Data Object Services).