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Hands-on Workshops

The Exchange Workshop program continued to be a popular adjunct to the technical sessions at Exchange. Over half were sold out and all were well received. These intensive four-hour sessions covered a wide range of development topics as well as database administration. Developers and architects learned about the OpenEdge Architect IDE and what it can do for them, were introduced to object-oriented programming and how to start doing it in ABL, studied the layers and components of the OERA and went through a sample implementation, and how to do integration with Sonic ESB and OpenEdge. DBAs learned tips and techniques on how to do the daily tasks of their job.

Read on for more insight on workshops available at Exchange.

A Day in the Life of a DBA
OpenEdge provides many functions oriented to the care and well being of the database. Existing features improve upon the quick maintenance of a 24x7 database while the database is running. You can monitor production databases and keep them operating at peak efficiency. Synchronous and asynchronous replication to a standby database assist in disaster recovery and additional reporting capabilities. And, auditing features offer security administrators expanded oversight of user activities within the database. Attendees benefited from unique insight into existing functionality as well as the additions and improvements that every DBA should know and use.

Building an OERA Implementation
The OpenEdge Reference Architecture (OERA) is the foundation for achieving flexibility and consistency while architecting OpenEdge-based business applications. During this workshop, we reviewed architecture concepts, components, reference designs and example implementations. Attendees were able to go through a simple process of producing business functionality within an OERA-based implementation. And, through discussion and examples, realize the added benefits of following the OERA guidelines as well as how the architecture can help you extend the reach of your application functionality. Attendees walked away with a better understanding of the OERA, its benefits, how features in OpenEdge 10 make it easier to implement an application based on OERA and how to apply these concepts to application design.

Exploring OpenEdge Architect
OpenEdge Architect is an integrated development environment designed for building business applications using an architected business-logic centric approach. OpenEdge Architect simplifies application development by providing a configurable workspace. Whether you are a developer, DBA, or architect, the OpenEdge Architect provides a palette of task-appropriate tools that can be easily configured and used. During this beginner-level workshop attendees learned about key features of OpenEdge Architect and how to use them, including:

• Project-based development and workspace configuration
• Managing databases with the DB Navigator
• Source code development
• Integrated Debugger functionality
• Impact analysis with the Meta Catalog

Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming in OpenEdge
OpenEdge includes significant extensions to the language that allow you to code application objects using an object-oriented development model. These new class-based objects can coexist in the same application and communicate with procedure-based objects (persistent procedures). Support includes inheritance, polymorphism, delegation, interfaces and overloading plus so much more. Attendees learned about these extensions using Blackjack as the example topic and discovered how to:

• Design and define classes using data members, properties, methods, interfaces and casting to support object-oriented application model
• Design for inheritance, encapsulation, polymorphism and delegation
• Create and use objects to work with existing ABL applications
• Do error handling and debugging

OpenEdge and Sonic: Do It and Believe!
During this workshop OpenEdge developers/architects who are unfamiliar with Sonic products were introduced to a variety of options available for solving integration problems using Progress SonicMQ/Sonic ESB. This workshop not only included architectural discussions centered on OpenEdge/Sonic ESB integration options, it also provided specific guidance on how to select one option over another. Armed with this knowledge, attendees were able to visualize how their current OpenEdge architecture could benefit from Sonic integration and how to confidently bring these new ideas back to their own organization.