PowerBuilder TV - March 2013

** Hot News **

Presentations for March 2013 ....

Is the DataWindow Just For Displaying Rows and Columns? … Are You Sure?

Tuesday, March 12, 2013
9:00am PST (Los Angeles) / 17:00 CET (Paris)

(Please note time/date change: the original date of February 19th has been pushed back to March 12th, this has also affected the time in different zones due to Daylight Savings)

DataWindows are mostly used for displaying data in different kinds of presentation styles like grid, tabular, tree view etc. The DataWindow also has another great property: displaying shapes like rectangles, circles, etc. Moreover, these shapes can be created at runtime.

In this presentation, Sonat Karakas of Turkcell will talk about creating shapes in a DataWindow, creating them dynamically and techniques for storing them in a database. At the end of the presentation, he will move up a notch by looking at displaying a server rack, showing its slots and painting them in different colors according to their usage status.

Presenter: Sonat Karakas



Regards ... Chris

PowerBuilderTV - February 2013

** Hot News **

PowerBuilderTV

February 2013

Upcoming webinar schedule ...

Wednesday Jan 23, 2013 at 9:00 AM PST (Los Angeles) - 18h00 CET (Paris) Creation and Consumption of Web Services with SAP Sybase PowerBuilder This session examines some of the recent improvements in PowerBuilder for the creation and consumption of Web services. Specific emphasis is placed on: • The new WCF client in PowerBuilder .NET. • The new WCF service type in PowerBuilder .NET. • The new REST client in PowerBuilder .NET. • Using a WCF client in an PowerBuilder .NET assembly to enhance PowerBuilder Classic. Presenter: Bruce Armstrong

Tuesday Feb 19, 2013 at 9:00 AM PST (Los Angeles) - 18h00 CET (Paris) Is the DataWindow Just For Displaying Rows and Columns? … Are You Sure? DataWindows are mostly used for displaying data in different kinds of presentation styles like grid, tabular, tree view etc. The DataWindow also has another great property: displaying shapes like rectangles, circles, etc. Moreover, these shapes can be created at runtime. In this presentation, Sonat Karakas of Turkcell will talk about creating shapes in a DataWindow, creating them dynamically and techniques for storing them in a database. At the end of the presentation, he will move up a notch by looking at displaying a server rack, showing its slots and painting them in different colors according to their usage status. Presenter: Sonat Karakas

Click to see the full schedule or learn more



Regards ... Chris

STD Framework Release

** Hot News **

Foundation Classes for PowerBuilder

(for PowerBuilder "Classic and .Net", Appeon Web and Appeon Mobile)

   Software Tool & Die Inc (STD) is very pleased to announce that they have just released an updated version of their Foundation Class library today for both PowerBuilder and Appeon Web plus the first "official beta" for Appeon Mobile!

   The latest version contains the following updates and has been tested with Appeon 6.5.1 / 2013 using the PowerBuilder 12.1 / 12.5.1 official MR (maintenance) releases including PB's "Classic" and .NET versions. Testing inside of PB has also included WebForm, Winform, Win32 and Smart Client deployments.

   The FC's are *free* and can be downloaded (along with an updated sample Order Entry application) from the SourceForge website: 


The changes to the FC's are as follows .....

PowerBuilder

New SMC feature in action!

Release 12.1.0 Changes ... January 17, 2013)

1. Added new SMC (System Monitor Console) Window feature
2. Removed some old WinNT/Win2000 commented out code.
3. Optimized various code segments for better performance
4. Replaced the following INI vaules in the "[System]" section.

     They are no longer PocketBuilder or DBMS specific.

• PB_Check_Version=Y
• DB_Check_Version=Y
• OS_Check_Version=Y

Appeon Web 

 Release 12.1.0 Changes ... January 17, 2013)

1)    Changed the parameters in the "[SYSTEM]" section of the INI to compliant with other FC variations.
2)    Restructured all the Menu Classes to get ready for new CLF (Section 508) website construction techniques (coming soon!).

This will support any type of website look & feel!

3)    Copied the following new objects from the PowerBuilder side of the FC framework to allow Appeon more functionality:
New ...
  fn_build_number
  fn_convert_packed_decimal
  fn_copy_transaction
  fn_dbms_get_sysdate
  fn_decrypt_simple
  fn_encrypt_simple
  fn_get_enumerated
  fn_lookup_display_value
  fn_print_screen
  fn_remove_spaces
  fn_replace_all
Modified ...
  fn_open_sheet_window
  fn_open_sheet_window_withparm

Appeon Mobile (Official Beta Release!)

Release 12.1.0 Changes ... January 17, 2013)

1)    Changed the parameters in the "[SYSTEM]" section of the INI to compliant with other FC variations.
2)    Restructured all the Menu Classes. 
3)    Copied the following new objects from the PowerBuilder side of the FC framework to allow Appeon more functionality:
New ...
  fn_build_number
  fn_convert_packed_decimal
  fn_copy_transaction
  fn_dbms_get_sysdate
  fn_decrypt_simple
  fn_encrypt_simple
  fn_get_enumerated
  fn_lookup_display_value
  fn_print_screen
  fn_remove_spaces
  fn_replace_all
Modified ...
  fn_open_sheet_window
  fn_open_sheet_window_withparm



  Note: There will be another release of the FC's soon! Stay tuned to this blog for more news releases!

Futures

1)  Converge PB, Appeon Web and Appeon Mobile into a single source framework.
2)  Add more PB, Web and Mobile features.
3)  Port the EAServer version of the framework to .NET for web service based NVUO support!
     This will be an MVC Architecture as already implemented in EAS.
4)  Integrate Open Source tools like Spell Checking, OCR, Imaging  and more!

Regards ... Chris

Web CD Player

** Hot News **

Web Browser version of the PowerBuilder CD player released!

  Built and deployed using Appeon 6.5.1045.00

    This release is written in PowerBuilder 12.1 (build 6518 - GA) and encompasses some interesting features that you can coax out of the Windows operating system. Normally, the application can be deployed as a Win32, Winform or WPF (using PB.Net) and allows the user to control music from any CD/DVD player attached to their PC.

    The amazing part of this story though is use of the Appeon Web product and it's ability to be able to translate the PowerScript based application into pure XML, HTML and jScript - thus totally removing the PBVM run-time dependency. Then, being able to reproduce verbatim the application GUI inside the web browser while the Appeon AJAX plugin allows any web application the absolute necessary O/S control to accomplish its task!

Actual screen capture of the Appeon Web CD player at work!

   From the same baseline code, adding Appeon to the PB developer's arsenal you can achieve:

• Pure web deployment of any application 
• PB Developer controlled look & feel
• Absolute Low level control
• Native printing  using local PC's resources (not PDF dependent)
• Using Appeon Mobile and the same baseline code you can also deploy to a Mobile device!
• etc

 
     So not only is this a "kool" application to run natively, the important aspect to consider when building a PB application with plans to webify is that if you need low-level control to use a scanner, bar code reader, camera, GPS, etc Appeon's unique architecture (*).

I am Appeon Sam
Appeon Sam I am, That Sam-I-am!
I could not build this in a box.
Nor using Visual fox.
I do not like it built with Delphi.
I do not like it built with VB.
I do not use WPF for that here or there.
I do not even use Webforms anywhere.
I do not like Visual Studio's C# and ham.
I do not like them at all, Appeon Sam-I-am.


* - Note:  You can not do this common code base application with other tools like Visual Studio, Delphi, or even with PB's WebForms feature. Either the functionality is not available or you need to re-write the application code for each target environment deployment. When you Appeon to the PB mix though - a whole new horizon emerges!   :-)


    If you would like to enjoy the Native or Web version of the above CD Player application, please visit the  SourceForge website and my STD-Foundation-Classes project. Then select "All Files" to drill down to the PowerBuilder or Appeon sections. All the code in this project is free & open source.

For information on a Free Version of Appeon Developer, join ISUG at the "Green ($99) or Gold" level  and receive Appeon as part of your membership!

Regards ... Chris Pollach
President: Software Tool & Die Inc.

PBTV - January 2013

** Hot News **

Upcoming webinars on PowerBuilderTV

Thursday Jan 17, 2013 at 9:00 AM PST (Los Angeles) - 18h00 CET (Paris) Appify Your UI: Designing a Mobile User Experience With PowerBuilder Ready to go mobile? With the arrival of Appeon Mobile, you can now leverage your PowerBuilder skills to build complete apps for a full range of mobile devices, from smartphones to iPads to full-fledged Tablet PCs. Mobile application development has never been easier or faster. Creating an engaging user experience, however, requires more than simply re-deploying your existing code for new target platforms. Join Ronnie Po of Morpheon Corporation as he discusses design considerations and techniques for developing user-friendly mobile applications, and watch him demonstrate native mobile apps he has built using PowerBuilder and Appeon Mobile, including: • YouHoops, a mobile score-keeping and scoreboard application for basketball games • ChartBase MA, an add-on to Morpheon’s signature ChartBase medical application Presenter: Ronnie Po

Wednesday Jan 23, 2013 at 9:00 AM PST (Los Angeles) - 18h00 CET (Paris) Creation and Consumption of Web Services with SAP Sybase PowerBuilder This session examines some of the recent improvements in PowerBuilder for the creation and consumption of Web services. Specific emphasis is placed on: • The new WCF client in PowerBuilder .NET. • The new WCF service type in PowerBuilder .NET. • The new REST client in PowerBuilder .NET. • Using a WCF client in a PowerBuilder .NET assembly to enhance PowerBuilder Classic. Presenter: Bruce Armstrong

Don't forget to check out the archive of past webinars!

Regards .... Chris

ISUG Name Change

** Hot News **

 ISUG Changes its Name!

   At the ISUG Annual General Meeting on December 11th, the membership approved changing the legal name from the "International Sybase User Group" to the "Independent SAP Technical User Group".

  The new name will be officially effective once all the necessary legal paperwork has been filed, but you will begin to see changes on their website over the next two weeks as the staff and board of directors move as quickly as possible to implement this change.  Online they will be known as ISUG-Tech – which keeps the history of ISUG as well as emphasizing their technical nature.

  The new ISUG entity's mission will remain the same but changing the "Sybase" with "SAP" will align the group with all things SAP (including Sybase products) and cater to the needs of their members, the technical community.

  For more information on this name and focus change, please visit the ISUG website (click here).

Regards ... Chris

Appeon Mobile - MDI

** Appeon Mobile Beta 1.0 News **

Appeon Mobile Stays True to MDI

    The Multiple Document Interface is alive and well on the iPad thanks to Appeon Mobile's implementation of true PowerBuilder "feature for feature" support! The MDI interface became a standard from the onset of MS-Windows 3.1 and began its life in the PowerBuilder realm since version 2.0. The business community embraced the interface as it has a natural support for allowing users to compare similar pieces of information side by side, track multiple units of open work and arrange / locate these work units to suite the processing needs & flow.

Example of Cascade arrangement request.

    When Sybase was building their WebForms feature support for PowerBuilder, they had the option to implement the MDI interface GUI standard. In fact, I saw a working version in the early days of PB 11.0 Alpha that implemented the MDI interface. However, between the Alpha release and the official Beta - Sybase dropped MDI support and went with the multi-tabpage GUI look and feel. During the Beta for PB 11.0 many testers complained about the lack of MDI support. Since PB 11.0's production release, even many business users I have spoken to have rejected the Webform's feature set because of the lack of MDI support in the web browser. Again, for the main reason of not being able to see two similar data entity's side-by-side.

Example of a "Tile Horizontal" request.

    In the PocketBuilder (PK) days on Windows Mobile O/S, the MDI look & feel was not supported by the native operating system - thus PK did not support MDI for that reason. However, I was able to emulate the MDI feature set in my STD Foundation Class framework. The framework was used in many PK applications and the feedback I received on having the MDI features enabled in their PK applications was very positive!

Appeon Mobile extends the "Window" menu pull-down list of active sheets!

  The Appeon Mobile system displays the active open sheet window's title text from the "System Icon" of the Appeon Mobile operating shell. The Window list displays the MDI Frame window title first and then each open sheet (child MDI window) in successive order as they were opened. This implementation allows the iOS application user to navigate to any active sheet in any order. The application user may also close or bring background MDI child windows to the foreground from this feature as well.

Example of MDI Toolbar handling in Appeon Mobile

   Any MDI application may utilize a toolbar on the MDI Frame window and also another toolbar on any active MDI Child window as well. A native MS-Windows MDI application will always display the MDI frame and active Child toolbars in sequence. The Appeon Mobile implementation displays a partial representation of the first toolbar on the right side of the main application title (like a preview) and then displays the full toolbar contents when the user taps on the toolbar ">;" activation symbol. As the iOS application user changes the active MDI Child window, the Appeon Mobile changes the lower toolbar icons to suite just like its genuine MS-Window's counter-part.

Example of a "Tile Vertical" request.

Example of drop-down Menu support in Appeon Mobile

  Besides the full support for tiling the MDI child windows horizontally, vertically or cascaded - Appeon Mobile supports full drop(pull) down menu support from the Menu Icon on the Appeon Mobile application. The menu that drops follows proper MDI rules in that the MDI Frame's menu drops when the "Menu" icon is tapped if only the MDI frame is present. If an MDI Child is open, the Menu Icon displays the MDI Child's menu when tapped and this changes as each open MDI Child window is re-activated.

Example of a dialog's Control Menu implementation in Appeon Mobile

   Each MDI Child or even Response / Pop-Up window shows a Control Menu on each MDI Child's top right-hand side. Tapping this area allows the Appeon Mobile application to present the standard Minimize, Maximize or Close options that real MDI appications on MS-Windows have always supported. The same feature set is fully supported by the Appeon Mobile application and even allows the iOS user to "Restore" the MDI Child windows size when is a Minimized or Maximized state.

  Like Appeon Mobile, Appeon Web implements the full MDI feature set inside your Web Browser - eclipsing in my opinion - the native PB Webform application just in the MDI support alone. Appeon Web though takes your PB application's web experience far beyond what the Webform's features support for a true proper business user experince. Its so refreshing to see that Appeon Coporation is also taking this attention to detail approach in their iOS application design and support as well.

  Well done Appeon!

Note: you can always implement the multi-tabpage look and feel in your Appeon Mobile or Appeon Web application as well. The Appeon product is nice in that it does not force the PowerBuilder developer to a particular user interface pattern. Instead, it allows the PB developer to design the web or mobile applciation to suite their business user's needs!

Regards ... Chris

Appeon Mobile - Beta 1.0

** Hot News **

Appeon Mobile Beta 1.0 Has Been Officially Launched!

   Appeon Corporation is excited to announce that Appeon Mobile Beta 1.0 has been officially launched. If you want to test Appeon Mobile Beta, please sign up by following this link (click here). Once you’re confirmed as participant in Appeon Mobile Beta program, Appeon will assign an account to you for downloading the product.

Regards ... Chris
PS: I was on the Alpha ... you really need to try this "kool" new software!   :-)

PBTV - December 2012

** Hot News **

December 2012 Webinars on PowerBuilderTV

Dimitri Joosten - Gantt Chart Planner — Consuming .NET Assemblies in PowerBuilder .NET
Dmitry Golubev - Building Customizable Applications using CRAFT
Matt Balent - Implementing Datawindow Usability Improvements with Minimal Disruption
Bruce Armstrong - Using .NET Assemblies with PowerBuilder

Tuesday, November 27, 2012 at 9:00 AM PST (Los Angeles) - 18h00 CET (Paris) Gantt Chart Planner — Consuming .NET Assemblies in PowerBuilder .NET Construction companies need an overview of their planning and work in progress. HBBSoft, a PowerBuilder .NET application, aims to achieve this purpose using Gantt and scheduling. The application is able to communicate with the Microsoft Exchange Calendar using Microsoft Exchange Web Services (EWS) to plan employees’ tasks immediately into the Outlook calendar. This presentation covers several techniques used in the HBBSoft application: • .NET user authentication. • Consuming Exchange Web Services to sync with Exchange Calendar. • Custom Expression Blend toolbar. • Integration of third-party Gantt and schedule controls. Presenter: Dimitri Joosten

Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 9:00 AM PST (Los Angeles) - 18h00 CET (Paris) Building Customizable Applications using CRAFT Create a business application in just a few days or change the business logic immediately after a customer request. This session presents CRAFT, a software platform for building customizable and complex business applications. CRAFT does not require expert programming skills — knowledge of SQL is sufficient — and its visual tools allow developers to build applications rapidly, even without a single line of code. Applications can be customized easily during implementation at a customer site. The CRAFT software platform: • Leverages the full power of DataWindow technology for creating user interfaces and reports. • Enables software developers to create and manage application business objects definition, their representation (using DataWindow forms visual designer), and their business logic (if needed) using embedded high-level object-oriented language. • Program language syntax is very similar to PowerScript® language (with some extensions) —  PowerBuilder developers will have minimal learning time. • Supports the most well-known SQL databases (Oracle, Microsoft SQL, MySQL, InterBase, Firebird, PostgreSQL), and can be used as a prototyping tool, as a report generator, and as a tool for business analysis. Presenter: Dmitry Golubev

Tuesday, Decembre 4, 2012 at 9:00 AM PST (Los Angeles) - 18h00 CET (Paris) Implementing Datawindow Usability Improvements with Minimal Disruption This presentation covers techniques to create and implement a 'datawindow enhancement service' within an existing PowerBuilder application with the goal of providing improved functionality while keeping disruption to application users to a minimum. It is similar to the session presented at the 2012 PowerBuilder Developers Conference held in October in conjunction with SAP TechEd. Focus for this session will be on the creation of the service object, implementing example functionality enhancements with existing datawindows, and ideas for further expansion of the service. Presenter: Matt Balent

Wednesday, Decembre 5, 2012 at 9:00 AM PST (Los Angeles) - 18h00 CET (Paris) Using .NET Assemblies with PowerBuilder This presentation covers techniques to create and implement a 'datawindow enhancement service' within an existing PowerBuilder application with the goal of providing improved functionality while keeping disruption to application users to a minimum. It is similar to the session presented at the 2012 PowerBuilder Developers Conference held in October in conjunction with SAP TechEd. Focus for this session will be on the creation of the service object, implementing example functionality enhancements with existing datawindows, and ideas for further expansion of the service. Presenter: Bruce Armstrong

Don't forget to check out the archive of past webinars!


Regards ... Chris

ISUG - Annual General Meeting

** Hot News **

ISUG - 2012 Annual General Meeting

The International Sybase User Group will be holding their annual general meeting on on Tuesday, December 11th at 3pm EST (8pm UTC). The meeting will be available via a live webcast and is open to all ISUG members!

The meeting will consist of a presentation covering the last 12 months along with the plans for the next 1-2 years. The board also plans to bring at least one motion requiring a vote of the members.

You can register for this meeting at my.isug.com.  All members are invited to attend, although Associate level members will not be permitted to vote on any pending action(s) required by the membership.