Tips & Tools

Re-Fact-Orings Of Life

Sat, 05 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST

When I first accepted the assignment to write a tutorial about refactoring code, I was sure that refactoring was something that developers did when ‘extreme' requirements hit their application. Like when, management wanted to move the entire app to the web or extract the business logic out of the application for use in other applications. After all, the focus of the assignment was migration to PowerBuilder 12. I perceived refactoring as a bitter pill (radical procedure) that a team had to swallow (perform) when code got too old to stay in its existing form and needed a lobotomy to survive.

Implement a Calendar Component in PowerBuilder Applications

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:15:00 EDT

Those who answer to users probably agree that the style of the PowerBuilder applications have remained unchanged for far too long. While major improvements are anticipated with the release of the PowerBuilder 12 beta, developers who would like a quick face-lift for their applications are invited to continue reading here.

The New Generation of Decompilers

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 13:00:00 EDT

The latest development technologies rely on intermediate languages and can be decompiled. PowerBuilder is no exception. In this article, we will address the risks posed by decompilers. We will also discuss what can be done to protect against the possible negative results of decompilation – whether you create in-house applications, commercial applications, or are using these applications for your business.

Automating Preflight with PDF Analyzer

Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:45:00 EDT

More than a decade ago Chuck Weger coined the term “preflight” to define the verification process of digital files prior to printing. Since then, this process or “check list” has materialized into integrated PDF options, plug-ins, and standalone products.

Using the Microsoft Chart Controls in PowerBuilder

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 08:45:00 EDT

You may not be aware of this, but Microsoft now provides a rather powerful charting control free of charge as an add-in for .NET 3.5. It’s available for download at http://xrl.us/ben3pm. Because it supports 35 different chart types (see Figure 1), it can add significant new charting capability to PowerBuilder applications.

Migrating Legacy Client/Server PowerBuilder Apps

Wed, 19 Aug 2009 21:00:00 EDT

In today’s competitive IT environment, organizations are reducing development and maintenance costs, and improving the accessibility of their legacy applications. With the growth in technology and demand for n-tier architecture-based applications, corporations now have an opportunity to transform their “legacy” client/server PowerBuilder applications to Web-enabled PowerBuilder applications by migrating to PowerBuilder 11.0.

How to Communicate with a DBMS

Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:45:00 EDT

Yes size really does matter when you are talking about a client/server application, web server, or application server communicating with a database management system. Size is often overlooked when designing very large application systems that can potentially generate an excessive amount of concurrent users, heavy database transaction load, complex queries, large data stream content or some type of mixture of the above.

QweryBuilder: A PowerBuilder Application

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:45:00 EDT

QweryBuilder is a database development tool designed and developed in PowerBuilder. Its purpose is to use innovative ideas and techniques to make database development and data retrieval easy and intuitive. It currently works against Sybase ASE, iAnywhere SQL Anywhere, Microsoft SQL Server and Oracle. An evaluation version of the application can be downloaded from www.Werysoft.com.

10 Reasons Why You Should Be a PowerBuilder Developer

Mon, 11 May 2009 14:37:00 EDT

Simply put, PowerBuilder is a smart business decision. Many companies have a significant amount of existing PowerBuilder code (in fact, it’s estimated that most Fortune 500 companies have huge amounts of PowerBuilder code), and it just does not make sense to toss it out and rewrite it for the sake of rewriting. Why choose another IDE/vendor to transform applications when you can transform these applications right from the source?

Supporting Events from .NET Visual Components in PowerBuilder

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:30:00 EDT

This article seems like it should be the fourth in a series of articles. The first two were on non-visual components in August 2006 and July of 2007. The last one was in August of 2007. In that one, we looked at using the Interop Forms Toolkit to provide a COM wrapper for Visual .NET components – essentially making them ActiveX controls – so that PowerBuilder could use them.

Consuming a SQL Anywhere Native Web Service Using a .NET Client

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 17:45:00 EDT

Enabling interoperability is one of the greatest benefits of using web services. In the business world, applications work on different platforms with different operating systems running applications whose programming languages vary wildly. For applications to interact with each other there should be a common method to transparently talk to all the different systems.

Using EAServer 6.2 Export Configurations

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 14:30:00 EDT

Version 5.x of EAServer allowed easy synchronization of components or packages among different servers, or a cluster of servers. Just right-click on the package or component, choose “Synchronize,” add any necessary addressing information for target servers, and click “OK.” The user interface that you use for EAServer management has changed dramatically between version 5 and version 6.x, switching to a browser-based console.

Converting a PowerBuilder 10.5 Client/Server Application to PB 11 Web Forms

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:36:00 EDT

As a long-time PB developer, I have successfully created or maintained many PB applications for clients and for myself. Since day one, I was impressed with the ease with which applications can be created using PowerBuilder. Although I had been exposed to Visual Studio and other client/server tools, I have always felt PB was the better product.

PowerBuilder and UPS Shipping

Wed, 04 Jun 2008 10:45:00 EDT

Does your shipping department have these problems? Extra charges due to incorrect addresses? Difficulty tracking packages? How about duplicate entries? If your shipping department is really ancient, you may even have rolls of preprinted UPS shipping labels. Here's how you can seamlessly integrate your printing function using PowerBuilder.

OrcaScript Tips, Tricks, Quicks and Snips

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 12:00:00 EST

In my first OrcaScript article 'Using OrcaScript to Automate Your Build Process With or Without Source Control' (PBDJ, Vol. 14, issue 6), I focused on automating the build process using OrcaScript. The entire article was based on the assumption that we might be using a separate build machine. Because of this, I avoided using or connecting to the workspace to get the source control connection parameters or to look at the source control status of each object. This time, I'll make things a little bit easier by using the workspace and focusing on writing short scripts and a reusable script that prompts for a target name.

Using Visual .NET Components in PowerBuilder

Sun, 26 Aug 2007 15:00:00 EDT

Microsoft recently released the Interop Forms Toolkit 2.0 in order to allow 'developers to incorporate VB.NET Forms and Controls into their VB6 applications' (www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx? FamilyID=934de3c5-dc85-4065-9327-96801e57b81d&DisplayLang=en).

Sybase PowerBuilder and FTP

Sun, 21 May 2006 17:45:00 EDT

Recently, I needed to have FTP support embedded in a PowerBuilder application that I was writing for my day job. Since PowerBuilder lacks the ability to natively manipulate sockets (a big negative, Sybase), a third-party solution had to be found or I was going to be tempting the wrath of the Windows API, something I wasn't looking forward to doing.

10 PowerBuilder Pitfalls

Wed, 29 Mar 2006 13:00:00 EST

First the good news: PowerBuilder is a great tool; in fact you can't accidentally do much wrong. This strength is based on a number of reasons. The following is list of why I think PowerBuilder is so great, but you might like to add one or two more items to it:

Office 2003 Toolbar: A New Look For Your Old PowerBuilder App

Mon, 24 Oct 2005 14:30:00 EDT

There's a reason why software developers like Microsoft update the look of their applications every two years. It shows the consumer that something has changed and therefore they need to upgrade, at least that's my opinion.

Techniques for Working with Identity Columns in ASAProxy Tables

Sat, 02 Apr 2005 09:00:00 EST

PowerBuilder and PocketBuilder have powerful features for supporting identity or autoincrement datatypes. To activate these features, the PowerBuilder or PocketBuilder integrated development environment (IDE) must be aware of the identity attribute associated with the underlying database column. Typically, this is obtained using a SQLColAttributes() request with a request type of SQL_COLUMN_AUTO_INCREMENT.

PowerBuilder: Got Toolbar Trouble?

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:00:00 EST

Using toolbars in an application, and the way PowerBuilder lets you control behavior, is dependent on a few functions and your basic menu design. And, remember, for a developer, every enhancement to a user interface benefits the customer, and heightens his satisfaction.

Mike Mason's New Book "Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion" Is Out

Wed, 26 Jan 2005 00:00:00 EST

The award-winning series, The Pragmatic Starter Kit, has a new addition: Pragmatic Version Control Using Subversion, by Mike Mason, a senior developer with the transnational IT professional services firm ThoughtWorks.

Holiday Greetings from Seattle - Jingle all the way . . .

Wed, 03 Dec 2003 14:00:00 EST

Ahh, the holidays - time for warmth, family, a spirit of charity (or greed, depending on your wont), and days off. Many of us spend our holidays vacationing, shopping, worshipping, and trying to rekindle childhood memories or feelings.

Using Interfaces with PowerBuilder Part 2 of 2

Sun, 01 Dec 2002 00:00:00 EST

Wouldn't it be nice if we could use DataWindows, DataStores, and DataWindowChild objects in the same way? This article shows you how.

Ant: A Build Tool from the Jakarta Project

Thu, 01 Aug 2002 00:00:00 EDT

There is (still) a growing market for Java development tools. This is a good thing, but also a big problem, since I don't have a plug-in for every IDE for my secret love: Sybase EAServer. It's not fun to build a .jar, .war, or .ear in the IDE, then fire up the Jaguar Manager and do the boring 'import by hand' thing. What is the solution?

How Sexy Is Documentation?

Wed, 01 Aug 2001 00:00:00 EDT

There have been volumes of books, studies, and essays regarding coding standards and including comments within software code. This article outlines a few common- sense rules on why documentation is required and, strategically important, also shows how to implement comments and documentation effectively within your software code product.

Data Mining

Wed, 01 Nov 2000 00:00:00 EST

You may think you're using your data warehouse to its fullest extent. After all, you've amassed a great deal of data about customers or inventory that you can look up at will. But if you're not using the proper business intelligence (BI) tools, your data warehouse is no better than a hunk of coal. BI tools such as data mining can turn the coal into a diamond that can propel your business to the top.

Filtering Grid Lines

Fri, 01 Sep 2000 00:00:00 EDT

Have you ever used a grid DataWindow to maintain a table in which columns use DropDownDataWindows for selection, but one column's choices are dependent on another? It's a pretty common scenario, but one that's not so simple to code.

No More Headaches with the Cartesian Product

Sat, 01 Apr 2000 00:00:00 EST

In developing various report systems, I found it necessary to recall the ad hoc query tool (based on a concept by Sean Rhody discussed in SYS-CON Publications' Secrets of the PowerBuilder Masters 5.0). For those of you who haven't read about it I'll take a minute to describe it briefly.