The Open Client Toolkit includes ProxyGen utilities for generating proxy objects and the Open Client Runtime to access the application server. The Open Client Runtime provides support to client developers to build their client with proxies or with the OpenAPI.

Use ProxyGen

ABL developers use ProxyGen to generate proxies, or native client objects to access the ABL application (r-code) and the associated internal procedures and functions hosted on the application server. ABL developers control how much of the underlying application an Open Client developer can access. ABL developers must have access to the .r files to run the ProxyGen tool.



ProxyGen has a graphical version and a batch version. The graphical tool allows you to specify which parts of the backend you want to expose, and then it builds the proxies. It also creates a .xpxg file (independent of the proxies) which saves all the information that defines your proxies. Batch proxygen takes as input an .xpxg file and generates/regenerates for those ABL developers who want to automate the running of ProxyGen when underlying ABL code changes are checked into a source code control system.

Note: In order to use ProxyGen, you need to have Java installed locally. For more information, see the OpenEdge Installation Guide.

Proxy files

Open Client developers do not need to have any knowledge of how to write ABL applications. The proxy files provide the native classes that allow the Open Clients to communicate with a specific ABL application and its associated procedures and functions. The generated file types are unique for each Open Client type.

OpenAPIs

For .NET and Java Open Clients, OpenEdge provides a means for you to access application services directly on an application server without the need to generate proxies using ProxyGen. You can do this using an API (OpenAPI) provided with each Open Client.This Open Client OpenAPI provides a set of classes for you to access application services using general access methods. Because these classes know nothing about the application service they are accessing, you must be familiar with all the requirements for accessing the external procedures, persistent procedures, single-run procedures, singleton procedures, internal procedures, and user-defined functions provided by the application service. With this information, you must set up the procedure and user-defined function signatures according to application service requirements in your client code at run time. Using the OpenAPI may provide more freedom to access the underlying ABL code, but it is typically at the expense of productivity. For more details see the OpenAPI content in the respective .NET and Java Open Client content.

Open Client Toolkit generates other file types

Originally designed to generate proxies for Open Clients, the Open Client Toolkit includes functionality for Web Services, Aurea SonicMQ® and Sonic ESB® not addressed in the Open Client content.

For more information on Web Services, see the Develop services content.

For more information on Aurea products, see the Aurea documentation.

For information on ordering Open Client Toolkit, see the OpenEdge 12 Platform Compatibility Guide.

If you support Open Clients on a classic AppServer configuration, search the 11.7 Documentation for Open Client products and configurations.