Is the OpenEdge SQL interface ORM-ready

Posted by dbeavon on 27-Mar-2020 17:22

There are lots of ORM's out there these days.  They can be used from .Net or Java to connect to databases in a generic, object-oriented way.  The nice thing is that once you have overcome the learning curve for an ORM, your skills can be reused to connect to any relational database whether it is SQLite, or SQL Server, or MySQL, or whatever.

I'm curious if anyone out there has ever tried to use an ORM against the SQL interface for the OpenEdge database.  I hope this idea doesn't offend the ABL developers out there, but it seems to me that I'm just as productive writing a line-of-business application with an ORM as I am with ABL.  Ideally we would be able to connect to the OpenEdge database from an ORM and benefit from the Progress database technology (even if we aren't using the ABL language).

I'm curious about whether any ORM is available to connect to Progress OpenEdge databases from Java or .Net.  Also I'm curious if Progress has ever supported the use of any ORM against its databases.

There have been other people asking questions along this line as well, like this one: 

https://community.progress.com/community_groups/openedge_architecture/f/22/t/5453

... but I'm not aware I have ever heard actually heard of anyone successfully using an ORM against OpenEdge....  Maybe the OpenEdge SQL interface isn't fast enough or perhaps it lacks enough functionality to make this work.  I think the SQL interface has always been focused on SELECT statements (reporting).  And I've also noticed that, even though DataDirect is owned by Progress, the team spends a lot more of their time enhancing their connectivity to non-OpenEdge databases.

Any pointers would be appreciated, even to say that it is not possible, or that Progress is not interested in making the database ORM-able.

All Replies

Posted by Peter Judge on 27-Mar-2020 17:46

I believe that Corticon uses nhibernate to connect to an OE db.
 

Posted by dbeavon on 27-Mar-2020 21:25

That is interesting.  I'm going to have to try it out now.   The real challenge may be to find the right forum to find the answers to any questions that may come up.

It appears the Progress KB won't be that much of a help:

www.google.com/search

This thread is closed