The Beauty of PowerBuilder
PowerBuilder is an application development tool, which is a dream for the developer, to build business applications. The PowerScript language that is used to write scripts in PowerBuilder is very user friendly and the syntax is almost like commmon english. Any developer with a good programming sense can easily learn and develop applications using PowerBuilder. Several government organizations and many fortune 500 companies still run many PowerBuilder applications. Many programmers (including this writer) have had a secure livelihood, as PowerBuilder developers and architects. It is very difficult to explain all the great features of PowerBuilder, within this short summary.
PowerBuilder was developed by Sybase Corporaion. It was a popular tool in the 1990s and early 2000s. After SAP corporation acquired Sybase, PowerBuilder is now called as SAP Sybase PowerBuilder. The latest version is 12.5.2 as of the day of this writing. PowerBuilder is now two tools in one. The latest version comes with two interfaces or development environments. 1. PowerBuilder Classic 2. PowerBuilder.Net. PowerBuilder Classic is the traditional development environment that was have all loved. The new PowerBuilder.Net environment is geared more towards building web applications. They open as different items under the Start menu (Windows)
The Power of PowerBuilder Classic
DataWindow
What an invention a DataWindow was. When we saw web developers pick up data elements piece by piece and put them together in forms, a DataWindow would just fill an entire screen full of data with one Retrieve statement. And the ability to present the data in a thousand ways, filter the data, update the data effortlessly during runtime - all these made the DataWindows a dream to work with. In later versions, the same powerful DataWindows have been enhanced to become Web DataWindows.
Window
The Window object is the actual data entry screen itself and it contains all the controls including the DataWindows.
OOPS - Object oriented programming structure
PowerBuilder uses the OOPS concept. Objects which are created can be inherited and objects can have many layers of descendants. Generalized Code can be written at the top most layer and more specific code can be written at the descendent level. Functions are embedded within objects and those functions can be called from all it's descendants.
Database Connectivity and reference in PowerScript
PowerBuilder connects to any type of Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) including SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase etc. The same application can connect to different platforms by using different transaction objects to connect to each platform. For example, an application can connect to Oracle to retrieve the data which is entered by the Front End Data entry screen and update that data in a MainFrame IDMS database by connecting to the mainframe platform using another transaction object within the same application. Even Excel spreadsheets can be datasources that feed data into DataWindows. Simple and complex SQL statements can be written inside PowerScript to reference tables and stored procedures that reside in the database.
Debugging
Managers insist that the developers test their code well before presenting it to the Quality Analyst. Some Developers dislike testing. However, with PowerBuilder, the debugging is no problem at all. All variables are tracked during the run time and breakpoints are placed within the PowerScript code and when the application reaches a breakpoint, the debugger shows what value each variable holds at that point. Debugging is fun with PowerBuilder.
Ease of Build and deployment
With one touch Build, PowerBuilder provides the capability to create executable files .exe and runtime libraries .pbd, which can be deployed in a server or in individual desktops, depending upon how the application has been architected.
PowerBuilder.NET
Using PowerBuilder.NET, developers can create WPF Applications. WPF Application architecture provides many advantages to developers and they integrate features like Adobe Flash support and HTML support. WPF architecture is suitable for applications with rich media content.
Users can create and implement the following types of targets
WPF Window Targets
A new WPF Window application can be created using this target.
PB Assembly Targets
One or more pbl libraries can be built into a PB Assembly target. This target can be referenced by other targets.
.NET Assembly targets
This type of targets make available visual objects, that can be added to the WPF windows
WCF Service Target
This type of targets build PowerBuilder applications using the Microsoft's Windows Common Foundation (WCF) model.
PowerBuilder is an application development tool, which is a dream for the developer, to build business applications. The PowerScript language that is used to write scripts in PowerBuilder is very user friendly and the syntax is almost like commmon english. Any developer with a good programming sense can easily learn and develop applications using PowerBuilder. Several government organizations and many fortune 500 companies still run many PowerBuilder applications. Many programmers (including this writer) have had a secure livelihood, as PowerBuilder developers and architects. It is very difficult to explain all the great features of PowerBuilder, within this short summary.
PowerBuilder was developed by Sybase Corporaion. It was a popular tool in the 1990s and early 2000s. After SAP corporation acquired Sybase, PowerBuilder is now called as SAP Sybase PowerBuilder. The latest version is 12.5.2 as of the day of this writing. PowerBuilder is now two tools in one. The latest version comes with two interfaces or development environments. 1. PowerBuilder Classic 2. PowerBuilder.Net. PowerBuilder Classic is the traditional development environment that was have all loved. The new PowerBuilder.Net environment is geared more towards building web applications. They open as different items under the Start menu (Windows)
The Power of PowerBuilder Classic
DataWindow
What an invention a DataWindow was. When we saw web developers pick up data elements piece by piece and put them together in forms, a DataWindow would just fill an entire screen full of data with one Retrieve statement. And the ability to present the data in a thousand ways, filter the data, update the data effortlessly during runtime - all these made the DataWindows a dream to work with. In later versions, the same powerful DataWindows have been enhanced to become Web DataWindows.
Window
The Window object is the actual data entry screen itself and it contains all the controls including the DataWindows.
OOPS - Object oriented programming structure
PowerBuilder uses the OOPS concept. Objects which are created can be inherited and objects can have many layers of descendants. Generalized Code can be written at the top most layer and more specific code can be written at the descendent level. Functions are embedded within objects and those functions can be called from all it's descendants.
Database Connectivity and reference in PowerScript
PowerBuilder connects to any type of Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) including SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase etc. The same application can connect to different platforms by using different transaction objects to connect to each platform. For example, an application can connect to Oracle to retrieve the data which is entered by the Front End Data entry screen and update that data in a MainFrame IDMS database by connecting to the mainframe platform using another transaction object within the same application. Even Excel spreadsheets can be datasources that feed data into DataWindows. Simple and complex SQL statements can be written inside PowerScript to reference tables and stored procedures that reside in the database.
Debugging
Managers insist that the developers test their code well before presenting it to the Quality Analyst. Some Developers dislike testing. However, with PowerBuilder, the debugging is no problem at all. All variables are tracked during the run time and breakpoints are placed within the PowerScript code and when the application reaches a breakpoint, the debugger shows what value each variable holds at that point. Debugging is fun with PowerBuilder.
Ease of Build and deployment
With one touch Build, PowerBuilder provides the capability to create executable files .exe and runtime libraries .pbd, which can be deployed in a server or in individual desktops, depending upon how the application has been architected.
PowerBuilder.NET
Using PowerBuilder.NET, developers can create WPF Applications. WPF Application architecture provides many advantages to developers and they integrate features like Adobe Flash support and HTML support. WPF architecture is suitable for applications with rich media content.
Users can create and implement the following types of targets
WPF Window Targets
A new WPF Window application can be created using this target.
PB Assembly Targets
One or more pbl libraries can be built into a PB Assembly target. This target can be referenced by other targets.
.NET Assembly targets
This type of targets make available visual objects, that can be added to the WPF windows
WCF Service Target
This type of targets build PowerBuilder applications using the Microsoft's Windows Common Foundation (WCF) model.