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Newsletter Archive - January 2009

Table of Contents

1. Welcome, from Knowledge Services Director Don Fournier
2. Have you enrolled in the PEC yet?, by Margaret Collins
3. Progress Training Awarded Top Honors, by Bryan Davis
4. Getting Started with OpenEdge® GUI for .NET, by Doug Adams
5. Introducing the updated Accessing Databases course, by Arjun Sengupta

Welcome from Don Fournier, Director of Knowledge Services

Greetings and Happy New Year to you all, our customers! Thank you for your business.

As 2009 begins, let me remind you that PSC Knowledge Services has one key goal:  Developing customer courseware and documentation that empowers you to best use Progress® technologies and products.

This first 2009 edition of our newsletter focuses, therefore, on the power and value of our knowledge-based intellectual property.

First, we have an article about the Progress eLearning Community (PEC) by Margaret Collins, PSC Manager of eLearning Development. The PEC is a low-priced, high-quality, subscription-based vehicle for self-paced training.  See Margaret’s article about the content, organization, pricing and benefits of the PEC and find out how to enroll. It’s easy to do so, and you’ll promptly start reaping the benefits. No Progress partner using Actional, OpenEdge, or Sonic®  products should be without the PEC.

Next is an article by Bryan Davis, Principal Editor.  Bryan further reinforces the value of the PEC and all of our courseware by detailing the awards the Education team garnered in this year’s annual competition sponsored by the Society of Technical Communication (STC).  The team’s six awards were for both instructor-led training (ILT) and web-based training (WBT) variants. Since 2002, the team has won 39 awards, achieving broad recognition for our courseware portfolio.

Doug Adams, a former developer and now a Senior Technical Writer, tells you
about a new White Paper that he co-authored with John Sadd, Getting Started with OpenEdge GUI for .NET. This paper, which can be found at PSDN, is an overview to object-oriented programming in the ABL. The little primer details OpenEdge GUI support for .NET from the ABL. Anyone designing an OE GUI for .NET will want to read this paper.

Finally, Aurjun Sangupta, a Senior Instructional Designer at Progress Software-India, brings you up-to-date on some key changes being made in the Sonic curriculum. Reorganization and revision of material in the course, Calling Web Services, Accessing Databases, and Programming Custom Services, will make it easier for you to use and assimilate the content. This revision is an example of our constant attempts to refine and enhance our education products for you, our customers.

- Don Fournier

Have you enrolled in the PEC yet?

By Margaret Collins

The Progress eLearning Community (PEC) allows you access to the entire online Progress eLearning curriculum. Depending upon your technologies, an annual enrollment to the PEC provides you a choice of eLearning Libraries:

• The OpenEdge eLearning Library provides unlimited access to the OpenEdge and Sonic Catalogs for 12 months; $1500 USD (list price; special pricing is available for Elite and Premier Application Partners)
• The Enterprise Infrastructure eLearning Library provides unlimited access to the Sonic and Actional Catalogs for 12 months; $1000 USD (list price; special pricing is available for Elite and Premier Application Partners)

To see a listing and description of the current offerings on the Actional Catalog, click here.

To see a listing and description of the current offerings on the OpenEdge Catalog, click here.

To see a listing and description of the current offerings on the Sonic Catalog, click here.

What do you get?

An enrollment in the PEC provides:

• Unlimited access to the entire Product curriculum in each Catalog for a 12-month subscription period,
• Access to all new or updated online courses posted throughout the subscription period
• The ability to use as start-to-finish training, and
• The ability to use as performance-support training, accessing only the training needed then and there to do a job

The PEC offers a variety of training formats, including web-based training (WBT) courses, eBooks, and eSeminars.

WBT courses include simulated practices, animations with audio, self-assessment questions, and hands-on exercises. These innovative exercises allow the student to work in a live version of Progress software products and provide hints and solutions to guide the student.

eBooks are online versions of Progress Software's self-paced titles. They include searchable PDFs and all of the exercise files that accompany each course.

eSeminars include audio narration of course materials, as well as the opportunity for students to complete hands-on exercises.

What are the advantages?

eLearning has many advantages, including:

Convenience
In today’s business environment, sometimes it is just not possible to take several days off to attend classroom training. With self-paced training, you can fit the training into your schedule. You can take self-paced training just when you need it, so that it’s fresh in your mind when you start to apply it on the job.

Flexibility
Because it is self-paced, you don’t need to sit through content you already know thus allowing you to focus on only those topics that are new and you need to learn. You also can learn at your own pace spending as much time as you like absorbing the content and practicing the skills. The training also can be referenced as often as needed during your subscription. All our Core Curriculum self-paced training courses are hands-on. That is, you will be provided with everything you need to try all the practice exercises and labs on your own.

Lower Price
WBT is priced lower than comparable classroom training. For the cost of two or three days in the classroom, you can have unlimited access to an entire Education curriculum for 12 months.

High Quality
Progress eLearning is proud that our eLearning is regularly awarded honors by organizations such as the Society for Technical Communications (STC), frequently garnering the top prize of Best of Show in the STC’s annual Online Communication Competition.

How do I enroll?

It’s simple! To enroll in the PEC:

1. Visit http://wbt.progress.com.
2. Select the Self Register option.
3. Review the legal terms of a subscription to the eLearning Library.
4. Complete the New User Registration page.

The Progress eLearning team will receive your enrollment request, process your payment, and activate your account. You will be notified via email when your account is activated.

Please contact your Sales Representative or the Progress eLearning team at wbt-core@progress.com for more information.

Margaret Collins is the Manager of eLearning Development at Progress Software

Progress Training Awarded Top Honors

By Bryan Davis

Progress once again was honored with several awards for its Instructor-led Training (ILT) and Web-based Training (WBT) in the Society for Technical Communication Boston Chapter’s annual Online Communication and Technical Publications competitions.

Awards are given in three categories: Distinction (the highest), Excellence, and Merit. This year, Progress training garnered six awards in the competitions:

Distinction:

• Managing Operational Visibility with Actional (WBT)
• Advanced Progress SonicMQ®  System Administration (ILT)
  

Excellence:

• Developing Applications with Sonic ESB: Designing ESB
  Processes (WBT)
• Introduction to the Progress Sonic Workbench Development
  Environment (WBT)

Merit:

• Designing ESB Processes (ILT)
• Introduction to Progress Sonic Workbench Development (ILT)

The Best of Show award in the Online Communication and Technical Publications competitions will be announced at the Chapter’s annual dinner in February.  Also, all entries receiving a Distinction or Excellence award are eligible to compete in the STC’s International competitions, to be held in March.

“These awards once again confirm what many here at Progress know - that our training is top-quality and produced by some of the best people in the industry,” said Don Fournier, Director of Knowledge Services. “There always is a real sense of gratification when your work receives this type of recognition, but especially so when it comes from your peers as these awards do. Congratulations to everyone who worked tirelessly on these courses. I'm sure there are more awards to come in future competitions.”
Since first entering the competitions in 2002, Progress has won a total of 39 awards and three Best Of Show awards between the local and international competitions.

The STC organization is dedicated to advancing the arts and sciences of technical communication and is the largest organization of its type in the world. Its 14,000+ members include technical writers, editors, graphic designers, multimedia artists, Web and intranet page information designers, translators and others whose work involves making technical information understandable and available to those who need it.

It is those members with such a diverse background and areas of expertise that serve as judges in the competition.

Online Communication Competition

Training titles entered in the Online Communication competition (which encompasses computer-based and web-based formats) are judged in four areas: Audience and Goals, Writing and Content, Organization and Navigation, and Presentation and Design.

Of the Managing Operational Visibility with Actional course, the judges said the  demonstrations were “excellent and engaging. (The designers) did a good job of explaining the concepts well and making them come alive. They also were well narrated, not too long, (and featured) good content that reprised the static topics, clearly and were re-playable. The Audio Script feature allows you to view – and print – the script of the demo, which is an outstanding feature.”

What set the entry apart for the judges, however, was the entry’s navigational features.

“One of the biggest obstacles to overcome in an online entry is its navigation,” the judges wrote. “But the course’s Flash-based navigation bar does an excellent job. When combined with good organization and descriptive titles, it makes information easy to locate, prevents the user from getting lost, and gives an indication of how much content remains. The bottom of the page indicator (page # of #) was also very helpful.“

Technical Publication Competition

In the Technical Publication Competition, entries are judged in seven categories: Audience and Purpose, Organization, Content, Writing and Editing, Illustrations and Graphics, Layout and Design, and Production and Integration.

In reviewing the Advanced Progress SonicMQ System Administration course, judges lauded how well the course materials were organized and written, saying that the tables presented in lessons were “excellent (and) nicely break up procedures so students can quickly see how much is involved (in a procedure or exercise) and can follow along more easily.”

“I really like your writing tone and style,” wrote one judge. “It’s very friendly and easy to read, which is great for a training document. It also addresses the needs of various students. Your instructions are very easy to follow, especially in the tables with numbered steps.”

For information on Progress’ web-based training, please visit: http://wbt.progress.com

Bryan Davis is the Principal Editor of the Knowledge Services department of Progress Software

Getting Started with OpenEdge®  GUI for .NET

By Doug Adams

OpenEdge Release 10.2A builds on the OpenEdge 10 themes of developer productivity, lower operating cost, and long service life while being open and flexible. Specifically, this release offers OpenEdge GUI for .NET, a robust environment for building feature-rich, advanced graphical user interfaces. GUI for .NET is an alternative Windows desktop user interface for ABL applications based on .NET forms and controls. To introduce this GUI paradigm, a whitepaper explaining this technology titled, “A Primer for GUI for .NET Application Design”, is available on PSDN at: http://communities.progress.com/pcom/index.jspa?categoryID=2149.

This whitepaper offers a conceptual overview to object-oriented programming in ABL, support for .NET, and what is involved in designing an OpenEdge GUI for .NET. The topics covered in the whitepaper are based on new feature support available in OpenEdge Release 10.2A and later releases and includes the following sections:

Object-oriented programming in ABL

Object-oriented programming support in ABL extends the language to provide a cohesive and standard object-oriented programming model, while continuing to support the programming model available in previous releases of OpenEdge. ABL includes support for classes, which allow an application to be built from user-defined, class-based objects that can be defined and organized for use by an application at compile time.

GUI for .NET environment

The OpenEdge GUI client supports the ability to access Microsoft .NET objects from ABL much as if they were native ABL objects. ABL allows your application to use the GUI for .NET together with the OpenEdge GUI, and provides particular support for using .NET forms and ABL windows together in the same ABL session. The primary tool for GUI for .NET application development is OpenEdge Architect, an Eclipse-based Integrated Development Environment (IDE). The Visual Designer is an Eclipse plug-in, a WYSIWYG tool that supports visual building of complex GUIs in ABL based on .NET objects.

Basic types of forms and application styles

ABL supports several types of .NET forms for building different types of applications. A built-in form class can be used to create standard, borderless, and floating windows. You can also use this class to create modal windows such as a dialog. A special kind of form, the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) form, can contain other forms as child forms, including ABL windows that you may have created in OpenEdge Version 9 or earlier.

Controls in forms

ABL forms are containers for .NET Windows Forms UI controls and non-UI controls. .NET contains a variety of controls that you can add to forms that, for example, display text boxes, buttons, drop-down boxes, radio buttons, and so on. ABL provides a number of built-in controls and optional OpenEdge Ultra Controls for .NET, a set of supported Infragistics NetAdvantage Windows Forms controls.

Events

The GUI for .NET, event-driven application blocks for input and processes it as it is received. The application needs to use the .NET event loop whenever there is any chance it might use GUI for .NET. The main communication between .NET and ABL is the invocation of ABL event handlers. These event handlers are associated with specific .NET events. .NET forms and controls define events that they publish and fire events when an action occurs. ABL allows you to subscribe and unsubscribe event handler methods to .NET control events.

Data binding

From a UI standpoint, data binding is an integration between UI components (controls) and data sources. As such, data binding establishes the connection between the ABL data source, which can be a ProDataSet™, a query on a database table or temp-table, or a buffer, and the .NET UI component. We all have worked with data binding in ABL, but may not realize it since in many cases it is implied. Data binding with .NET is a bit more deliberate and more explicit. OpenEdge provides a built-in data binding source, the ProBindingSource, a class used to access ABL data from .NET controls.

Service layers

Implementing an OpenEdge GUI for .NET does not mean that you have to rewrite your application code. Even so, you might want to review your application architecture and decide which, if any, components could be modified to take full advantage of the Ultra Controls and the underlying object-oriented extensions to ABL. Materials on PSDN and presentations given at Exchange user conferences and elsewhere over the past several years have described an approach to building applications called the OpenEdge Reference Architecture (OERA). Most of those existing materials focus on the data management side of an application, describing data management components such as Business Entities that encapsulate access to a particular set of related application data.

One advantage of encapsulating access to your data and all the business logic that applies to it is that you can substitute a new user interface without having to change your business logic in any way. For this reason, when you consider how to integrate a new generation of user interface based on the GUI for .NET with your existing data and business logic, you would do well to consider how best to keep the data and logic that you already have, while separating that logic from the specifics of the UI.

ABL windows and .NET forms

OpenEdge applications can support both ABL windows and .NET forms. .NET forms can be mixed with ABL windows in the same application. For Windows desktop applications that already use the OpenEdge GUI, you can add new GUI for .NET forms without changing the ABL windows of the existing user interface. The windows and forms can run side-by-side and one can parent the other. Each window and form is an independent entity in the application.

The whitepaper also provides sources for more information on the topics discussed, including OpenEdge manuals and websites.

Doug Adams is a Senior Technical Writer with Progress Software.

Introducing the updated Accessing Databases course

By Arjun Sengupta

As more and more businesses move to a service oriented approach, large organizations today may find a need to integrate tens to hundreds to thousands of heterogeneous data source instances distributed across their enterprises. Sonic ESB Database Service helps organizations manage these diverse data assets, using built-in JDBC drivers from anywhere on the enterprise service bus.

The Database Service, one of the key components of the Sonic ESB product line, automatically populates SQL query parameters based on incoming XML message parameters and transforms resultsets back to XML. It also provides remote administration of database connections and configuration through the Sonic Management Console.

It is also the subject of the latest addition to the Sonic curriculum – the Accessing Databases course. The course builds on the award-winning course Developing Applications with Sonic ESB: Designing ESB Processes, which recently won an Excellence award in the Society for Technical Communication’s Online Communication Competition.

The Accessing Databases course earlier was a part of the course Calling Web Services, Accessing Databases, and Programming Custom Services. With the rollout of the revised Sonic curriculum, the older course has been split into three WBT courses:

• Adding Web Services
• Accessing Databases
• Writing Custom Services

The course was broken up in order to update all material to reflect Sonic 7.6, and bring even greater depth to our training materials by offering a range of courses that are role-based, comprehensive, and easy to assimilate. Of the three, the WBT version of the Accessing Databases course has been developed and released and is currently posted on the Progress eLearning Community (PEC) at https://wbt.progress.com.

Learning Objectives

The learning objectives for the Accessing Databases course are:

• Describe the functions of the Sonic Database Service
• Configure the Database Service
• Connect to a sample database and define a database operation
• Test the database operation by creating and running scenarios
• Use the database service in an ESB process
• Use the database service to poll a database

This revised version contains the following additions:

• Using third-party JDBC drivers
• Using the Progress DBNavigator perspective
• Using Dynamic SQL
• Adding multiple Database Service steps to an itinerary
• Using a Database Service to poll a database

The Adding Web Services and Writing Custom Services courses are under development and will be released as individual WBTs, although the Instructor-led Training version will combine all the three courses under the same umbrella to support our traditional classroom training arrangements.

Arjun Sengupta is a Senior Instructional Designer with Progress Software

Curriculum At-a-Glance

Education

• Product-based Training
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