Open Source ABL code release with Spark Toolkit

Progress has announced the release of Progress Spark Toolkit, a set of open source Advanced Business Language (ABL) code and recommended best-practices to enable organizations to evolve existing applications and extend their capabilities to meet market demands.

“It has also enabled us to contribute to, and impact, the efforts of other Progress customers and partners. By open sourcing, the ABL code for these components, Progress is demonstrating that they want to do whatever they can to ensure the success of their customers and partners.”

Previously only available from Progress Services, the Spark Toolkit was created in collaboration with the Progress Common Component Specification (CCS) project, a group of Progress OpenEdge customers and partners defining a standard set of specifications for the common components for building modern business applications. By engaging the community, Progress has leveraged best practices in the development of these standards-based components and tools to enable new levels of interoperability, flexibility, efficiencies, and effectiveness.

“As part of the CCS, we’ve gained invaluable information and access to components and best practices,” said Bruce LeBel, CEO, ProStar. “It has also enabled us to contribute to, and impact, the efforts of other Progress customers and partners. By open sourcing, the ABL code for these components, Progress is demonstrating that they want to do whatever they can to ensure the success of their customers and partners.”

There are currently 10 components available within the Spark Toolkit. The first three are required components focused on starting up and bootstrapping sessions, business services, and an authentication component. The remaining components focus on everything from connecting to a service, to logging and catalog management, tagging and mapping and more.

The toolkit’s compliance with the CCS means that customers avoid component lock-in risk and can choose from a variety of vendors that implement to the standard. It is compatible with the latest version of OpenEdge, 11.7, and is available under Apache License 2.0. More components are expected to be added in the future.

“We have many customers and application partners who are modernizing and transforming their business applications to compete in an increasingly demanding marketplace,” said John Ainsworth, Senior Vice President of Core Products, Progress. “The Spark Toolkit arms them with ways to simplify and speed their modernization, delivering a competitive advantage.”