PUG UK & Ireland Webinar: GUI meets Web with Chromium Embedded

Recording of the Webinar held by Mike Fechner on March 18^th 2021. In this webinar he introduces the Chromium Embedded Framework (CEF) and how it can be used within OpenEdge ABL Applications using the CefSharp framework.

There are a variety of use cases for embedding modern web applications into existing OpenEdge GUI applications. One is to increase the user experience by integrating with third-party web applications or portals, e.g. to display tracking information of a delivery directly in the existing application.

Another use case is the successive migration of existing application functionality of an OpenEdge GUI application to a modern web application. The integration of the browser application into the GUI application enables the increase of user acceptance by avoiding the operation of two applications.

Unfortunately, the on-board tool of classic Windows development using the WebView does not meet the requirements of modern web applications. This is where various alternatives based on the Google Chrome browser source code come into play.

In this webinar, we will show you how to use the popular CefSharp project based on Chromium Embedded to integrate a modern web application into your Progress GUI application and interact with it bidirectionally. Presented is an Angular web application that has been integrated into an OpenEdge GUI application. Masks and datasets of the web application can be accessed specifically from the menu of the desktop application. Controls (e.g. the save or create button) from the desktop application allow the embedded application to be operated and status messages can be reported back to the desktop application via events, giving the user the impression of a seamless integration.