There is a bunch of possibilities available to you:
- WebSpeed - this is product from Progress that allows you to stay mostly within the Progress environment. Nevertheless, you need to know web technologies like HTML, CSS and others. The WebSpeed Broker is a variant of their AppServer which returns an HTML output via CGI to the WebServer.
- Any Java based technology ( I use Google Web Toolkit, for example ) for the UI. With the Java Open Client technology provided by Progress you can easily access the OpenEdge AppServer to fetch data from and store it into an OpenEdge database.
- Any .NET based technology for the UI. The .NET Open Client technology basically offers the same functionality which is provided by the Java Open Client technology - in this case for .NET.
- Any Web technology capable of accessing databases via JDBC/ODBC - but I would not recommend you because, IMHO of course, there is no value in keeping the OpenEdge database in such a scenario.
Personally I think WebSpeed is a little bit old fashioned and you need to get heavily into Java Script to get richness into the UI. Personally I don't like the .NET technology either because for my taste you depend to much on Microsoft and you are bound to the Windows platform.
As I am a humble guy just starting with the development of RIA ( Rich Internet Applications ) I explored the GWT and it looks very promising - and it's free. For me the best part of this combination of technologies is that I can have all of the business logic and data access in Progress OpenEdge technology ( where IMHO the strength of the OpenEdge technology lies ) and have the most fanciest of RIA without having to dive to deep into Java Script coding or being limited to what Progress offers.
Heavy Regards, RealHeavyDude.