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Inclusion of Apache 2.0 Licensed ADE Code

The following should not be construed as legal advice. This is our assessment of the ADE licensing. Consult your own attorney before relying upon these opinions.

Introduction

Progress delivers some of its OpenEdge product as a separate download that they refer to as the "ADE" (Application Development Environment). This is a combination of development tools as well as actual functional code that is used at runtime in an application. The distinction in this code vs the rest of OpenEdge is that this code is largely written in the 4GL language itself whereas the core OpenEdge platform and database are written in C and are binaries only.

Many 4GL applications have some runtime dependency upon some version of this ADE code, which has been released in source code form for more than 25 years. This code was released under multiple licenses.

Although one can use the Possenet code safely, 4GL projects on more recent versions of OE than 9.1E/10.0B may require work to use the older ADE code. As an alternative, the recent 11.7.x and very recent 12.8.x ADE code can be used. For 4GL projects on older OE releases (e.g. 11.6 or older), this also may require some work since this ADE code is newer and contains differences, especially in the OO 4GL classes.

In FWD v4.0, some of this Apache 2 ADE code has been converted and is being included in the core FWD project itself. This eases the effort to use these ADE features, avoiding the need to include them in the conversion project itself. For details on which parts of the ADE are included, contact mailto:.

AGPL version 3 and Apache License 2.0 Compatability and Relicensing

FWD is licensed under the AGPLv3.

The Apache Software Foundation recognizes the ability to relicense APACHE LICENSE 2.0 software under version 3 of the GPL or AGPL here: https://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL-compatibility.html

The Free Software Foundation recognizes Apache License 2.0 as compatible with GNU GPL (and AGPL) here: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses

All unmodified source code licensed under Apache License 2.0 in FWD remains licensed under Apache License 2.0. You may modify or distribute the Apache License 2.0 source code in accordance with the Apache License 2.0 requirements.

Source code modified by Golden Code Development Corporation is being relicensed under AGPL version 3, and may only be modified or distributed in accordance with the AGPL version 3. All ADE code that has been converted is a derivative work of the original ADE code and those modifications are relicensed under AGPLv3.

Apache License 2.0 also permits Golden Code Development Corporation to modify or distribute source code originally licensed under Apache License 2.0 commercially, so long as the notice requirements of Apache License 2.0 are complied with. The Apache License 2.0 details these requirements.

How to Relicense ADE Code

Whenever converted ADE files are added to the FWD project, these steps must be followed.

Edit the readme

In the root directory of the FWD project there is a readme file. In the section documenting the ADE code relicensing, add:
  • any new directory that contains converted ADE code.
  • individual converted ADE files, when the directory where they reside contains also previously hand-written .java code

Edit the newly added converted ADE Java code.

In each newly added (converted) ADE file, we must make edits to clarify the licensing. There are 2 reasons:

  • We are relicensing our modifications under the AGPLv3. This means we will hold some level of copyright on these files which must be documented.
  • We MUST RETAIN ALL original copyright, patent, trademark, or attribution notices from the original ADE code. This is important to meet the requirements of the original Apache 2.0 license that the ADE code came from.
    • In normal conversion (with comment conversion enabled) for business logic files (e.g. .p, .w, .cls), any copyright and other notices should be brought over automatically. You MUST check this to ensure that all notices exist in the resulting Java code. If they do not exist, bring them over manually.
    • For code that is refactored out of the business logic files and turned into their own classes (e.g. frames, menus, temp-table DMOs), you MUST MANUALLY copy over any of these legal notices.
    • If a resource (like a temp-table) exists in multiple files in the original 4GL version, the notices from any of those files are sufficient. You don't need to edit the copyright dates or otherwise modify the notices to be a superset. In fact, it is important to leave the notices unchanged.

This means we will add this to the top of every converted ADE .java file (above existing notices and below any standard GCD header):

/*
** =====================================
** THIS FILE HAS BEEN MODIFIED BY
** Golden Code Development Corporation
**
** FROM THE FOLLOWING PROJECT ORIGINALLY
** LICENSED UNDER APACHE LICENSE 2.0
** https://github.com/progress/ADE
**
** The APACHE LICENSE 2.0 under which
** the original project was licensed
** can be found here:
** https://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
**
** The Apache Software Foundation
** recognizes the ability to relicense
** APACHE LICENSE 2.0 software under
** version 3 of the GPL or AGPL here:
** https://www.apache.org/licenses/GPL-compatibility.html
**
** The Free Software Foundation
** recognizes Apache License 2.0 as
** compatible with GNU GPL (and AGPL)
** here: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/license-list.html#GPLCompatibleLicenses
**
** Golden Code Development Corporation
** IS LICENSING THIS MODIFICATION UNDER
** THE AGPLv3 AS IDENTIFIED BELOW                                 
** =====================================
**
** This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
** it under the terms of the GNU Affero General Public License as
** published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the
** License, or (at your option) any later version.
**
** This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
** but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
** MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the    
** GNU Affero General Public License for more details.
**
** You may find a copy of the GNU Affero GPL version 3 at the following
** location: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.en.html
**
** Additional terms under GNU Affero GPL version 3 section 7:
**
**   Under Section 7 of the GNU Affero GPL version 3, the following additional
**   terms apply to the works covered under the License.  These additional terms
**   are non-permissive additional terms allowed under Section 7 of the GNU
**   Affero GPL version 3 and may not be removed by you.
**
**   0. Attribution Requirement.
**
**     You must preserve all legal notices or author attributions in the covered
**     work or Appropriate Legal Notices displayed by works containing the covered
**     work.  You may not remove from the covered work any author or developer
**     credit already included within the covered work.
**
**   1. No License To Use Trademarks.
**
**     This license does not grant any license or rights to use the trademarks
**     Golden Code, FWD, any Golden Code or FWD logo, or any other trademarks
**     of Golden Code Development Corporation. You are not authorized to use the
**     name Golden Code, FWD, or the names of any author or contributor, for
**     publicity purposes without written authorization.
**
**   2. No Misrepresentation of Affiliation.
**
**     You may not represent yourself as Golden Code Development Corporation or FWD.
**
**     You may not represent yourself for publicity purposes as associated with
**     Golden Code Development Corporation, FWD, or any author or contributor to
**     the covered work, without written authorization.
**
**   3. No Misrepresentation of Source or Origin.
**
**     You may not represent the covered work as solely your work.  All modified
**     versions of the covered work must be marked in a reasonable way to make it
**     clear that the modified work is not originating from Golden Code Development
**     Corporation or FWD.  All modified versions must contain the notices of
**     attribution required in this license.
*/

Just above any existing non-GCD copyright, patent, trademark, or attribution notices in the modified files, add this:

// ORIGINAL ADE 4GL SOURCE CODE ATTRIBUTIONS:

© 2025 Golden Code Development Corporation. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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