Almost twenty years ago, before PFC, user group meetings were mostly totally dedicated to frameworks. How deep or shallow... Inheritance, encapsulation and polymorphism. Who had the smartest string functions or ability to do file system operations better than anyone.  I remember getting a buzz out of playing a wavefile using soundA. It was all very technical.  On projects frameworks were an afterthought for the techos while waiting for the final final user specs or while we were RADing. Who needs specs when you can write a quick and dirty actual system in half the time.

Every new project seemed to have a Lead who managed to sell or donate their framework enhanced since adopted from a previous project and which would get it all going and programmers had to learn it and adhere by its' inherent standards, whilst forgetting Cobol and worse. PB was better than VB and SQL Windows came and went. Datawindows above all conquered the up and coming client server market running on windows 3.1.1 for work groups.

My point here is. 15-20 years ago PB was it.  New project = PB.  In 1998 we had 16+ people attending FastTrack to PowerBuilder 5 and 6.5 every month in Sydney, Australia alone.

PFC set the foundation of all new projects in the mid to late nineties.  Frame, sheets, menus, tabs and 3D sunken five deep. Game, set and match.  By late '96 I was a lead on a project and found myself wanting to write my own, cos that's way more fun, but hearing myself praising PFC.  Got my kicks from writing new window services. Sticky Notes was one.

By 2000 PB had gone from best C/S tool with added PFC to 3tier Jaguar with... well you really need a different sort of framework to pool your poor stateless components. Not many could justify a Jaguar and true to form, Sybase struggled selling it for HOW MUCH?!  We had gone from high development license cost and free for all deployment to a different model all together.

After PFC... well PFC is now embedded in a few "Legacy" systems.  If you wanted something else you couldn't justify it. Metaphorically speaking the PFC foundation is as heavy as solid concrete and all the utilities heavily embedded. At least your house won't move in a hurry.  Might also keep a few of us enjoyed till retirement in not so many moons.

So is there an after PFC.  Is there something to replace it. Are there Tech Leads and Architects on projects who can take the user requirements and who can justify PB Apps at all?  Apps!! have we gone full circle?  What are Apps on Windows going to look like next year?  Could a modern PB framework take control away from terrible awful browser applications where you have to enter a simple date from 3 dropdown.  A drag when you are born more than half a century ago.  Who will design it?  What are the real requirements of a modern generic app? 

To me, the ideal framework would enable you to produce a maintainable core business application app in a very short time frame.

I don't know what else can snatch PB from the jaws of the slow attrition to oblivion.

Confused on how to search in just the PowerBuilder Developer Center rather than all of SCN?  No problem, I'll show you how that's done.

1.  First, go ahead and enter your search term in the search bar at the top of the page and hit Enter.

2.  You will be redirected to the search.sap.com site, with preliminary results filtered to just SCN. Depending on the term you used to search on (how unique it is to PowerBuilder), the PowerBuilder Developer Center may appear within the "Space" submenu on the left.  If so, just select that and move to step 5.  If not, select the "more" option.

3.  In the edit field that appears, enter "PowerBuilder" and press the arrow key.

4.  The PowerBuilder Developer Center should now appear.  Select it.

5.  You now have results that are specific to the PowerBuilder Developer Center.  There are additional criteria you can use to filter by the date the information was posted, who posted it, and the type of information (blog post, discussion or collaborative document).

The following video walks you through the steps as well.  Note that there is no sound

Just released on August 1, 2013:

EBF 21586: 12.5 SP02 PL02 (build 5583)

Let's see if that fixes some of the bugs.

This is a screenshot of the roadmap seen in the PBTV webinar of July, for those who did not attend it.

There were no official from SAP, so the presenters insisted on the fact that it is not official.

It was also mentioned that PB Native is the new name for PB Classic.

.

SAP Mentor, TeamSybase charter member and PowerBuilder Developer Center's own Bruce Armstrong has authored a new instructional video to add to your library.

Thank you Bruce!

SAP D&T Academy - How to Compile and Deploy a PowerBuilder Win32 Application - YouTube

The lastest video I provided for the SAP Database and Technology Academy.

I use the sample application (pbtutor) that comes with PowerBuilder for the demonstration.  I'm also using the PBR Builder utility that was shipped with PowerBuilder 5 and is available from Sybase's CodeXchange.  Note that I had to update it though, as PowerBuilder 5 used the PB.INI file to store information about targets and PowerBuilder 12.5 uses the repository.  The updated version of the utility is available from by PowerBuilder Samples folder on Google Drive.

Dear Customers and Partners,

Recently we have received messages from many of you about the future of PowerBuilder. First, we would like to express the tremendous respect SAP has for the passion and power of the PowerBuilder community. We apologize for the delay in providing you with an update, and realize that we need to improve our communications. You have our commitment that we will be as open and transparent as possible going forward.

Our highest priority is to protect the significant investments you have made in PowerBuilder over the past two decades. We are still reviewing PowerBuilder and are working at the moment to determine the best way forward.

We want to thank you all for sharing your thoughts and concerns so openly and honestly with us, your loyalty to PowerBuilder, and your continued support for SAP. We know that the PowerBuilder community is waiting to hear from SAP, and will provide a response as soon as possible in the SAP Community Network (SCN) and other channels.

Sue Dunnell, PowerBuilder Product Manager

I'm running a petition on causes.com, and I wanted to do some geographic analysis of the results.  Causes.com gives me information about the signers with regard to their name, email address, country and zip code.  The country information was useful for doing the first phase of the analysis, which I wrote about in the Lumira space.  However, I wanted to do a bit more fine grained analysis, and that means I needed to convert that zip code information into something more directly useful (e.g., city, county and state for the United States).  There's 1500 data points though, so I need an automated method.  Google Geogoding API to the rescue.

The Google Geocoding API is a REST services, so I created a REST client in PowerBuilder.Net using the following URL:

http://maps.google.com/maps/api/geocode/xml?components=country:USA|postal_code:{zip}&sensor=false

Where {zip} represents the zip code that I'll be passing in as an argument.  Most REST services don't have a WSDL you can use to create client data types from.  For the PowerBuilder.Net REST client perhaps the simplest way to get it to be able to determine what data types to create is to provide it with a sample response from the service.  What I provided was the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><GeocodeResponse><status>OK</status><result>  <type>postal_code</type>  <formatted_address>Azusa, CA 91702, USA</formatted_address>  <address_component>   <long_name>91702</long_name>   <short_name>91702</short_name>   <type>postal_code</type>  </address_component>  <address_component>   <long_name>Azusa</long_name>   <short_name>Azusa</short_name>   <type>locality</type>   <type>political</type>  </address_component>  <address_component>   <long_name>Los Angeles</long_name>   <short_name>Los Angeles</short_name>   <type>administrative_area_level_2</type>   <type>political</type>  </address_component>  <address_component>   <long_name>California</long_name>   <short_name>CA</short_name>   <type>administrative_area_level_1</type>   <type>political</type>  </address_component>  <address_component>   <long_name>United States</long_name>   <short_name>US</short_name>   <type>country</type>   <type>political</type>  </address_component>  <geometry>   <location>    <lat>34.2667473</lat>    <lng>-117.8545867</lng>   </location>   <location_type>APPROXIMATE</location_type>   <viewport>    <southwest>     <lat>34.1031590</lat>     <lng>-118.0513950</lng>    </southwest>    <northeast>     <lat>34.3791980</lat>     <lng>-117.6556881</lng>    </northeast>   </viewport>   <bounds>    <southwest>     <lat>34.1031590</lat>     <lng>-118.0513950</lng>    </southwest>    <northeast>     <lat>34.3791980</lat>     <lng>-117.6556881</lng>    </northeast>   </bounds>  </geometry></result></GeocodeResponse>

Note that the information I want comes in the "administrative_area_level_1" (State), "administrative_area_level_2" (County) and "locality" (City) address component types.  I'm also going to grab the approximate lattitude and longitude coordinates from the geometry portion of the response.

With the REST proxy created, I create a WPF application that has a datawindow that reads the CSV data that causes.com gives me and then loops through it adding the information from the Google Geocoding API.  The main code of interest is as follows.

long     ll_index, ll_count
string     ls_zip, ls_lat, ls_long, ls_country, ls_county, ls_city, ls_state
googlegeo_proxy     proxy
GeocodeResponse response

 ll_count = dw_1.RowCount()

 proxy = create googlegeo_proxy

 FOR ll_index = 1 to ll_count
     ls_country = dw_1.Object.country[ll_index]     if ls_country <> "United States" THEN CONTINUE     ls_zip = dw_1.Object.zip[ll_index]     if Len ( ls_zip ) = 4 then          ls_zip = '0' + ls_zip     end if     response = proxy.GetMessage ( ls_zip )     if response.status = "OK" then          ls_lat = String ( response.result.geometry.location.lat )          ls_long = string ( response.result.geometry.location.lng )           System.Collections.IEnumerator enum           enum = response.result.address_component.GetEnumerator()          GeocodeResponseResultAddress_component address          do while enum.MoveNext()               address = enum.Current               Choose CASE address.@type[1]                     CASE "administrative_area_level_1"                         ls_state = address.long_name                    CASE "administrative_area_level_2"                         ls_county = address.long_name                    CASE "administrative_area_level_3"                         ls_city = address.long_name                    CASE "locality"                         ls_city = address.long_name               END choose          loop          dw_1.Object.lattitude[ll_index] = ls_lat          dw_1.Object.longitude[ll_index] = ls_long          dw_1.Object.state[ll_index] = ls_state          dw_1.Object.county[ll_index] = ls_county          dw_1.Object.city[ll_index] = ls_city     else          dw_1.Object.lattitude[ll_index] = response.status     end if     // Wait 2 seconds or Google will put us into OVER_QUERY_LIMIT condition     Sleep ( 2 )
NEXT

The zip codes were imported as numbers, so I'm prefixing them with 0 of they are only four digits long.  I'm using an enum to loop through the address_components because PowerBuilder.Net doesn't offer a particularly easy way of requesting a specific element in the collection.  And referencing address.@type[1] is a bit of a hack, as there are a number of type attributes returned and I'm assuming the one I want is always the first one.  That code will break if they don't always come back in the order I expect.

The last thing you might note is that I do a Sleep(2) between calls to the API.  Google places some restrictions on calls to their APIs to prevent abuse, often in terms of total number of calls or calls per day.  In the case of the Geocoding API, the restriction is that you can't call it more often than once every 2 seconds.  The Sleep makes sure that I don't exceed that limit and start getting overy query limit error response.

And here's the results on a state by state basis for the United States.

Unfortuantely, Lumira was unable to recognize enough of the city and county names that Google provided that it make trying to do the analysis on any finer detail rather difficult.

Upcoming webinars on PowerBuilderTV

September 2013

Regards ... Chris

I am writing this post as a concerned ex-Powerbuilder developer.
I have been working on Powerbuilder projects for the last 18 years - the last 4 years as a business analyst consultant with various mainstream companies in the UK including a big American investment bank.

It came as a bit of a shock when the different IT managers I have spoken too over the last few months considered Powerbuilder to be ‘dead’ and they are looking to migrate to other technologies.
The irony is that they all still consider Powerbuilder to be a very good and effective tool... Personally I still believe Powerbuilder remains one of the best, easiest and fasted ways to develop enterprise level applications.
You hardly find any Powerbuilder jobs advertised in the UK anymore...

My feeling is that SAP is losing loyal and potential new Powerbuilder customers on a daily basis at the moment. SAP needs to publicly and officially commit them to PowerBuilder’s future soon or it will really be dead in this part of the world...

Below is my initial draft of an enhancement submission form to the SAP Customer Connection pipeline.  The initial requests have been culled from the ISUG-Tech enhancements and specifically relate to the datawindow.

SAP Customer Connection

Focus Topic Request Template for User Groups/ Customer Communities

Please note:Focus Topic requests for SAP’s Customer Connection Program need to be collected by the User Group/ User Group back office and then centrally forwarded to SAP (customer-connection@sap.com).

SIG Lead*/ Requester:                        Matthew Balent

E-Mail:                                                 mbalent@gmail.com

User Group, SIG:                                  ISUG-Tech

Country:                                               USA

Company:                                            [Company Name]

Submission date**:                             [Date]

*Special Interest Group Lead = German: Arbeitskreissprecher

**Date when Focus Topic request was sent to SAP

Focus Topic Definition

(Examples for Focus Topics: Banking –Consumer & Mortgage Loans, PLM – CAD Integration)

1. Name (examples see above)

PowerBuilder Datawindow Enhancements

2. Description

The following are a list of functional improvements for the datawindow control. These have been entered and voted on by members of ISUG-Tech for may years.

The specific enhancements are:

• Change DW update properties only when necessary
• Control Page Breaks with in DataWindow Reports
• Allow references to child datawindows in nested reports.
• DW Row highlight based on mouse over

And as a documentation change related to datawindows

• Documentation of relative row in DW expressions

3. Scope (if information is available)

1. Solution component affected

Datawindow

2. Business Processes to be supported

Application development with PowerBuilder

4. Issue / challenges of installed base (to be addressed with Focus Topic)

• Increased development time
• Increased risk of defect introduction during development

5. Example for Improvement Request

Control Page Breaks with in DataWindow Reports

Submitted By:               Thomas Lamb [Healthware Systems]

Enhancement Id:          3072

Enhancement Description:        I would like the ability to have more formatting control over datawindows for reports.  Specifically I would like to see the ability with groups and nested reports to manage Widows/Orphans, keeping them together, keeping them together with the next group or nested report.

A widow is the last line of a group or nested report printed by itself at the top of a page. An orphan is the first line of a group or nested report printed by itself at the bottom of a page.

Additionally sometimes a group or nested report will knowingly be small enough that you want to insure the entire thing is kept together and not split over a page break.

Also sometimes you'll have multiple groups defined where one group contains heading information for the next group.  If you can't fit both groups together before the end of the page; then do the page break before you print the heading group.

Enhancement Benefit: Greatly improve readability and enhance presentation of reports produced by the datawindow in PowerBuilder.

Additional Details:      As a reference Microsoft Word prevents widows and orphans. To locate this option in Word, click Paragraph on the Format menu, and then click the Line and Page Breaks tab.

Implementation:          Refer to Microsoft Words' Paragraph formatting capabilities.

Current Votes

13 (68.42%) 5:Needed:

3 (15.79%) 4:Recommended:  

2 (10.53%) 3:Undecided:  

0 (00.00%) 2:Not Recommended:  

0 (00.00%) 1:Not Needed:  

1 (05.26%) 0:No Vote (will not affect vote average):  

Average:   4.61

6. Focus Topic Potential

• Total number of Improvement Requests expected:  50
• Number of Improvement Requests already existing:  unknown
• Customers assigned to existing Improvement Requests:              No
• Priorities defined for existing Improvement Requests:                 No
• Other SIG (besides the requesting) to join Focus Topic:

7. Targeted adoption of proposed Focus Topic / cycle

• Expected number of customers contributing to Focus Topic: 20

• Customers with special interest in the proposed Focus Topic and/or intension to subscribe ₁:

1. 1.       Matthew Balent – ISUG Tech
2. 2.       [Customer name]
3. 3.       [Customer name]
4. 4.       [Customer name]
5. 5.       [Customer name]
6. 6.       …

₁Subscribing on an Improvement Request means: the customer is planning to implement the developed Improvement timely after the release, volunteers to provide feedback to SAP and act as a possible reference.

1. 8.    Past activities regarding the proposed Focus Topic with SAP (if applicable)

[Past activities]

1. 9.    Additional comments you want to share with SAP

The following are the specific requests:

Documentation of relative row in DW expressions

Submitted By:           Jerry Siegel [Retired]

Enhancement Id:     3500

Enhancement Description:  The documentation of the use of relative row in a DW expression (column[+/-n]) is buried in Chapter 20 of the User's Guide. It should be included in the main entry for DW expressions.

Enhancement Benefit:           This is a useful feature that few people know about because its documentation is so obscure. Please put it where it can be seen. It took an hour of searching to locate the existing entry so I could verify its existence!

Additional Details:   Referring to next and previous rows

You can refer to other rows in a computed field. This is particularly useful

in N-Up DataWindow objects when you want to refer to another row in the

detail band. Use this syntax:

ColumnName[x]

where x is an integer. 0 refers to the current row (or first row in the

detail band), 1 refers to the next row, -1 refers to the previous row, and

so on.

Implementation:      Just copy and paste into the help file.

Current Votes

18 (94.74%) 5:Needed:  

0 (00.00%) 4:Recommended:  

0 (00.00%) 3:Undecided:  

0 (00.00%) 2:Not Recommended:  

0 (00.00%) 1:Not Needed:  

1 (05.26%) 0:No Vote (will not affect vote average):  

Change DW update properties only when necessary

Submitted By:           Arnoud Oortwijk [Gloriant Belgium]

Enhancement Id:     3327

Enhancement Description:  When the SQL of a DW is changed the update properties are removed/reset when the SQL contains more than one table.

It would be easier should the update properties remain as they were unless they are no longer valid. For example when the updatable table is removed from from the query.

Enhancement Benefit:           Decrease development time. Decrease number of bugs caused by update properties which are not re set by the developer.

Current Votes

30 (85.71%) 5:Needed:  

5 (14.29%) 4:Recommended:  

0 (00.00%) 3:Undecided:  

0 (00.00%) 2:Not Recommended:  

0 (00.00%) 1:Not Needed:  

0 (00.00%) 0:No Vote (will not affect vote average):  

Control Page Breaks with in DataWindow Reports

Submitted By:           Thomas Lamb [Healthware Systems]

Enhancement Id:     3072

Enhancement Description:  I would like the ability to have more formatting control over datawindows for reports.  Specifically I would like to see the ability with groups and nested reports to manage Widows/Orphans, keeping them together, keeping them together with the next group or nested report.

A widow is the last line of a group or nested report printed by itself at the top of a page. An orphan is the first line of a group or nested report printed by itself at the bottom of a page.

Additionally sometimes a group or nested report will knowingly be small enough that you want to insure the entire thing is kept together and not split over a page break.

Also sometimes you'll have multiple groups defined where one group contains heading information for the next group.  If you can't fit both groups together before the end of the page; then do the page break before you print the heading group.

Enhancement Benefit:          Greatly improve readability and enhance presentation of reports produced by the datawindow in PowerBuilder.

Additional Details:  As a reference Microsoft Word prevents widows and orphans. To locate this option in Word, click Paragraph on the Format menu, and then click the Line and Page Breaks tab.

Implementation:     Refer to Microsoft Words' Paragraph formatting capabilities.

Current Votes

13 (68.42%) 5:Needed:  

3 (15.79%) 4:Recommended:  

2 (10.53%) 3:Undecided:  

0 (00.00%) 2:Not Recommended:  

0 (00.00%) 1:Not Needed:  

1 (05.26%) 0:No Vote (will not affect vote average):  

Average: 4.61 

Allow references to child datawindows in nested reports.

Submitted By:           James Kollar [NightThunder]

Enhancement Id:     3686

Enhancement Description: 

PB12.5.1

Dot notation doesn't cut it. Try wordwrapping a deeply nested data window with many comment fields. YUCK! GetChild could be far more robust and allow you do drive down into nested reports and have access to all the mothods and properties of the nested reports including getting children of children.

While your at it, fix the text cut off (in th epage clip area) that occurs when a datawindow is more than one page long. Another big YUCK!

PushCutControlToNextPage is not enough.

Reports would look much better and coding time could be reduced greatly.

Current Votes

6 (60.00%) 5:Needed:  

4 (40.00%) 4:Recommended:  

0 (00.00%) 3:Undecided:  

0 (00.00%) 2:Not Recommended:  

0 (00.00%) 1:Not Needed:  

0 (00.00%) 0:No Vote (will not affect vote average):  

Average: 4.6        

DW Row highlight based on mouse over

Submitted By:           Brian Prom [ACS]

Enhancement Id:     3493

Enhancement Description:  Would like to see a new property added to Datawindow bands that allows the band to be auto highlight when the mouse is hovered over the row.  Developers should be able to select the color of there choice (a gradient option would be nice also).  Also can picture controls and columns be visible based on if the mouse is over the row ( or header or footer bands ). 

Enhancement Benefit:           Would enhance the datawindow presentation to look and feel more modern. Windows Vista does this in windows explorer as does Firefox 3. Right now simulating this effect takes quite a bit of effort.

Current Votes

12 (57.14%) 5:Needed:  

9 (42.86%) 4:Recommended:  

0 (00.00%) 3:Undecided:  

0 (00.00%) 2:Not Recommended:  

0 (00.00%) 1:Not Needed:  

0 (00.00%) 0:No Vote (will not affect vote average):  

Average: 4.57 

___________________________________________________

Next steps: if all requested data have been forwarded to SAP, the Customer Connection Program will process your Focus Topic Request. If the Focus Topic is approved, it will become part of SAP’s Focus Topic Roadmap and then timely communicated to the respective User Group contact.

Upcoming webinars on

October 2013

The North Carolina PowerBuilder User Group and Appeon, Inc. are proud to present the Charlotte PowerBuilder Conference (CPBC) to be held at the Center City Campus of the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

The CPBC brings together many of the top application and database developers from the SAP PowerBuilder world to Charlotte for a three day event to spur innovation, share insight, and foster collaboration. The conference will feature a mix of plenary and break-out sessions, in depth focus topic training, and product demonstrations with a focus on mobile application cross-over, bringing data to and from the cloud, current user engagement ideals, and refactoring older code.

As an added bonus, and as a tribute to the unparalleled rapid application development capabilities of PowerBuilder, an application 'Code Off' contest will also take place where development teams will be tasked with creating a usable application in only two hours. The winners will be determined by vote of the conference attendees.

Dates: March 5,6,7 2014

Submit a Proposal to Present at the Charlotte PowerBuilder Conference here

The conference will focus on mobile application cross-over, bringing data to and from the cloud, current user engagement ideals, and refactoring older code. We also aim to offer a variety of technical training issues geared towards intermediate PowerBuilder developers. If you have developed a class for in-house training, please consider sharing it with the community.

The deadline to submit a session for consideration is November 1, 2013. Acceptance notifications will be sent out mid-November.

Session length may be either 60, 90, or 120 minutes. Demo type presentations should be limited to sixty minutes; in depth technical discussions or detailed analysis/examples would be more appropriate for a 90 or 120 minute slot.

Sessions need to be educational and technically focused. Intermediate level topics are encouraged.

Speakers must be available to present during the entire span of the conference (March 5-7, 2014). We offer complimentary registration to the Charlotte PowerBuilder Conference to approved speakers. If you are selected as a presenter, your final presentation is due February 1, 2014.

** Hot News **

Come celebrate OSUG's 21th Birthday!

  Dear SAP/Sybase User;

      Please join us on Thursday October 31, 2013 and Friday November 1, 2013 for the next Ottawa Sybase User Group (OSUG) special event! OSUG's mission is to create a Sybase community in the National Capital area of Canada where users can share knowledge, experiences, and best practices. Users of all Sybase products, including data management, tools and mobility are welcome to attend. This meeting  will feature networking opportunities, product updates and a discussion.

      The OSUG October 31st / November 1st meeting will be  held in Ottawa at Constitution  Square in the double Board Room (down  the hallway from the Queen's  University MBA lecture theater).  Constitution Square is located at 350  Albert Street (at Lyon) just  across the street from the Crowne Plaza  hotel. Bus access is right to  the door and parking is available at the  hotel, in Constitution Square  and across the street. The Double Board  room  is located on the second  floor (center) and can  be accessed from  either the west or east  elevators.

  Securely Taking Your PB Applications to the Web, Cloud, and Mobile Space!

Days Agenda (Tentative):

Day 1:

• Update on PowerBuilder situation
• Introduction to Appeon 2013
• Appeon Demonstrations
• Product road-map
• Introduction to other PB companion products
• Demo of other PB companion products
• Introduction of Visual Expert 7.0

Day 2:

• Hands-on lab to install & use Visual Expert
• Hands-on lab to install Appeon Web & Mobile (I can do this)
• Hands-on lab to configure and deploy an app with Appeon Web & Mobile (I can do this)
• Hands-on lab for advanced developer techniques with Appeon (I would need your help with this one)

    For Day 2 the audience would need to bring their Windows 7 or Windows 8 laptops with PB and SQL Anywhere installed.

How to Register

     To register for the above event, please follow this link (click here). This will take you to the PB World Tour website. From there, select "Cities" => "Ottawa" from the  pull down menu then, follow the "register" link to complete your registration!

Note: Everyone is welcome ... so I hope to see attendees again from Toronto, Montreal and northern New York state!

Cost:   Free!

Location

    The OSUG event will be held in the double-board room located in Constitution Square at 350 Albert Street, Ottawa, Ontario. The lecture rooms are located on  the center section of the second floor level.

Regards ... Chris

Registration for the conference is now open. 

Go to the North Carolina PowerBuilder User Group website (NCPBUG.ORG) for more information.

** Hot News **

  PowerBuilder TV - November, 2013

Regards ... Chris

Have a good idea or tip to share?  have a training class you set up at your work?  Consider sharing your expertise and get into the conference for FREE!

Go to www.ncpbug.org for more information. 

Session submission deadline extended until November 25.

New session information available as well.

Appeon Mobile 2.0 Beta

** Hot News **

Deploy your PowerBuilder Apps to Android

Appeon Mobile 2.0 Beta Get  Your Beta Accounts Now! Be the first to deploy apps for Android with PowerBuilder! Appeon corporation plans to launch the Beta version of Appeon Mobile for Android in mid November. The software vendor is looking for people with all kinds of PowerBuilder development  experience to participate in this beta program! If you're interested, don't miss the opportunity to get your beta  account.   Note:If you have previously participated in the Appeon Mobile 1.0 beta testing  program you will be automatically entered into the Appeon Mobile 2.0 beta  program. SIGN UP FOR THE BETA

Regards ... Chris

** Hot News **

    Appeon Corporation has released the new Appeon Mobile 1.5 and Appeon Web 6.6.0299.01 products for PowerBuilder Classic on November 14, 2013! Appeon has added some key new features, enhancements to exiting features and of course some minor bug fixes.

    Here is a summary of the key changes:

New features for Mobile:

• Supports Offline Mode (MobiLink).
• Supports iOS 7.
• Adds a new parameter EnabledLocalDB in DBParm property to allow connecting with a local UltraLite or SQLite database. This parameter takes effect in the Appeon Mobile only.
• Enhances the parameter CacheName in DBParm property to be able to connect with a local UltraLite or SQLite database. This parameter takes effect in the Appeon Mobile only.
• Supports using PB MLSync object to synchronize the local UltraLite database with the server-side consolidated database via the MobiLink server.
• Adds APIs (of_checkUpdate and of_applyUpdate) to check and apply updates for the offline application. You can use these APIs to check with the Appeon Server if there are any updates for the application and install the updates if necessary.
• Adds API (of_checkappeonserver) to detect if the Appeon Server exists.
• Adds API (of_applyDBUpdate) to update the local database files.

New features for Web:

• Supports the Tooltip.property DataWindow object property.
• Supports the DropDownCalendar property of the EditMask control.
• Supports the ToolbarUserControl property of the Application object.
• Supports the IE11.
• Supports using the Loadruner parametric ESQL and Datawindow arguments.

  For more details and information on how to download, please visit Appeon's website (click here)

Regards ... Chris