Progress Reengineers Cloud App Toolkit

Progress Software has announced its OpenEdge 11.2 cloud application development platform, featuring the cloud-based OpenEdge Mobile App Builder product. With this product launch the firm provides a tool to simplify mobile application development across multiple platforms.

The platform now features "mobility capabilities" in the form of a visual designer and UI toolkit for phone and tablet applications, REST support for the OpenEdge application server, JavaScript data binding support libraries, plus support for iOS and Android.

The firm says it has also engineered for productivity improvements by incorporating session-level structured error handling, improved performance for AppServer invocations, support for SQL offset/fetch statements, Progress Developer Studio: Scratch Editor, and sub-Second PAUSE support for Processes from ABL.

NOTE: Additional platform support also features for Windows 8, SQL Server 2012 certification, and Eclipse 3.7.

Progress justifies its product reengineering and new launch by citing a recent study of enterprise IT organizations, which suggested that many organizations are planning to connect end-users with enterprise-approved mobile applications — thereby bridging a so-termed "App Gap". However, many of these organizations anticipate the need to address potential roadblocks including security risks.

Saugatuck Technology analyst Mike West proposes that a mobile development platform — such as in Progress Open Edge 11.2 — is the "most reliable way" to ensure the productive development and ongoing enhancement of mobile solutions across multiple platforms. "Through to 2017, a majority of cloud business solutions for the enterprise, whether SaaS or in-house developed, will be designed to enable mobile access and interaction," he said.

Senior VP for application development at Progress Software Karen Tegan Padir says that four million users use applications built on the OpenEdge platform and that mobile access is now a "requirement rather than a convenience" in 2013. "We're delivering a platform that takes the complexity out of mobile application development without losing the seamless tie to our OpenEdge platform, which helps our ISV partners and developers bring apps to market quickly," she said.