BUILDING MODERN POWERBUILDER APPLICATIONS

DONALD D. CLAYTON PRESIDENT, INTERTECH CONSULTING, INC.

DECEMBER 14, 2011

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TOPICS

• The Shifting UI Landscape

• Strategies for Modernizing PowerBuilder Applications

• Building New PowerBuilder Applications

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THE SHIFTING UI LANDSCAPE

• User Interface (UI) standards have evolved

• WPF

• Metro

• Custom-developed applications haven’t kept pace

• Applications developed in the 1990’s have a dated look and feel

• With some effort, applications can be given a fresh look by making a few key User Interface (UI) changes

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A TYPICAL POWERBUILDER UPDATE SCENARIO

• Typical PowerBuilder applications underwent initial design and development in the mid to late 1990s were developed to look good in Windows 95 and 98

• PowerBuilder applications were also designed to interoperate with Microsoft Office Applications

–Office products in the 1990s looked very different

–Office products made substantial use of MDI

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WINDOWS PROGRAM MANAGER

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A TYPICAL POWERBUILDER APPLICATION

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A REVISED POWERBUILDER APPLICATION

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STEPS TO MODERNIZE A POWERBUILDER APPLICATION

• Move away from Windows Classic Style Controls

• Change Project Objects

• Change Default Fonts

• Make intelligent use of color

• Use contemporary Menus and Toolbars

• Introduce Treeview controls to show hierarchies

• Use the New RTF Controls

• Use more Modern Frameworks

• Move away from MDI

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MOVING AWAY FROM WINDOWS CLASSIC STYLE CONTROLS

The first thing PowerBuilder developers should do when updating applications is to move away from Windows Classic Style controls

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CHANGING THE PROJECT OBJECTS

For relevant PowerBuilder Win32-based Project Objects, open each project object and uncheck the “Windows Classic Style” checkbox

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WINDOWS CLASSIC STYLE CONTROL EXAMPLE

BEFORE

AFTER

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CHANGE THE DEFAULT FONT

Font use has evolved as new system fonts have been added

Many applications still use older fonts like MS Sans Serif

For revising applications, select more modern fonts

– Tahoma

– Calibri

• Has equal or better use of space than Times New Roman or MS Sans Serif

Be sure to use fonts “without feet”

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MAKE INTELLIGENT USE OF COLOR

BEFORE

AFTER

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INCORPORATE CONTEMPORARY MENUS AND TOOLBARS

Another easy thing to do is to incorporate “contemporary” menus, toolbars, tooltips, and other UI mnemonics

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USE TREEVIEW CONTROLS TO DISPLAY HIERARCHICAL NAVIGATION AND DATA

Treeview Controls and DataWindows can be used to display hierarchical data or to aid navigation

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A HIERARCHICAL TASK LIST USING THE XPLISTBAR CONTROL*

* XPListBar Control Courtesy of Brad Wery, Werysoft

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UPGRADE TO THE NEW RTF CONTROLS

PowerBuilder’s aging RTF control was replaced in PowerBuilder 10.5 with a much more powerful control

This new control supports the current RTF specifications in – RichTextEdit controls

– RichText DataWindows

– The new RTF column style

The new control also suppports new “Save As” formats – FileTypeDoc! saves the file in Microsoft Word format

– FileTypeHTML! saves the file in HTML

– FileTypePDF! saves the file in PDF format

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THE NEW RTF CONTROL

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UTILIZE OTHER MODERN CONTROLS

There are many other modern controls that can be used today, including

– Hyperlink controls

– Progress Bars

– Spin Boxes

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USE MODERN FRAMEWORKS

The Kodigo project framework Brad Wery’s PowerDock framework

Modern PowerBuilder Frameworks make it easy to construct contemporary interfaces

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WHAT IF I’M USING PFC?

The PFC is an excellent framework

– Robust

–Widely Used

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MOVE AWAY FROM MDI

• MDI was the dominant interface for

–Windows 3.1 Program Manager

–Microsoft Office

– Large PowerBuilder applications

• Microsoft started trending away from MDI some time ago

• It appears that the MDI interface is on borrowed time

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BEYOND MDI – THE WINDOWS PRESENTATION FOUNDATION

• The Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) is a graphical OS subsystem for rendering user interfaces in windowing applications

• There is no concept of MDI in WPF

• Sheets become tabs in the legacy frame window

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POWERBUILDER 12 .NET AS AN EXAMPLE OF AN IDE-STYLE INTERFACE

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UPDATING POWERBUILDER IS MORE THAN UI

• There is a lot of valuable business logic in most PowerBuilder applications

• This valuable business logic can be made accessible with some modifications

– Batch Programs

–Web Services

– .NET Assemblies

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CONCLUDING REMARKS

• The migration to a recent version of PowerBuilder is required to provide modern OS support, current database drivers, and to take advantage of the features discussed

• Developers can do many simple things to modernize the look and feel of applications

• The techniques explored here are simple, low cost, and low risk

• When developing with an eye to the future, be sure to remain committed to making your applications the best they can be

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Thank You

DONALD D. CLAYTON

INTERTECH CONSULTING, INC

DCLAYTON@INTERTECH.US WWW.INTERTECH.US