1. kamal kapur
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Thursday, 14 March 2019 00:00 AM UTC

I want to deploy an ERP system developed in Powerbuilder 2017 on the web. Appeon's solution is to use PowerServer which has the severe limitation of working only with Windows clients (IE, Firefox on Windows pc) only. How do I make the application available to clients on Linux and OSX ? What are the Appeon components required for doing this?

 

Sivaprakash BKR Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Saturday, 6 April 2019 06:14 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

IMO,  Solutions and limitations we have with PB 2019

1.  It's some how easier and time saving to convert existing projects to Cloud.  Reasult is an Windows App, which will work with any Windows [ full fledged ].  Think it won't work in Windows Mobile.

2.  For newer Cloud projects, create dw/ds, convert to C#, write other codes in Powerscript, run, check, test, deploy.   This way one can retain existing team.   

3.  For multi-os projects, with HTML/CSS as front-end, no easy solution available, even with 2019 revision, without  a good rewrite.   Appeon should think about this limitation and address this issue as well.

Happiness Always
BKR Sivaprakash

 

Comment
  1. Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  2. Saturday, 6 April 2019 19:36 PM UTC
#1 This is possible in PB 2019. You need two project types. PowerScript desktop app and C# Web API. The PowerScript desktop app calls C# Web API using the RESTClient object. In PB 2021 we plan to make the desktop app easy to install and update over the Internet.



#2 This is possible in PB 2019. Depending on what UI technology you will use, either you would create a C# Web API or C# assembly project. C# DataStore is provided as well as tool for converting any existing PowerScript DW/DS to C# DataStore.



#3 Yes, it is correct there is no magic solution to migrate existing PB desktop apps to HTML/CSS UI. This would be a hand coding effort for the UI layer. However, the business logic layer can be migrated to C# with the C# DataStore, and we are working on developing a PowerScript-to-C# code converter.
  1. Helpful
  1. Matthieu CHOMIENNE
  2. Monday, 15 April 2019 12:47 PM UTC
#3 @Armeen Why do you focus always on migrating desktop app to HTML... Where is the web datawindow ? there was a system to generate a full HTML/CSS/JS "screen" from a datawindow and you remove it. Some work on this functionality would have saved a lot of time to those who used it...
  1. Helpful
There are no comments made yet.
Roland Smith Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Tuesday, 2 April 2019 13:13 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 2

I don't think that what exactly the 'Cloud Edition' is has been clearly explained.

Comment
  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Wednesday, 3 April 2019 16:54 PM UTC
Hi BKR;

PS2019 was already released in January of 2019. Here are the main changes & new features in this version ...

https://www.appeon.com/sites/default/files/pictures/Downloads/PowerServer_2019_New_Features.pdf

Regards ... Chris
  1. Helpful
  1. Sivaprakash BKR
  2. Thursday, 4 April 2019 06:47 AM UTC
Chris,

I was talking about PB 2019 revision, NOT the released PB 2019 Beta one, which is supposed to have ASP.Net features that Armeen Mazda was talking about.

// By Armeen Mazda

In the future revision of PB 2019 we plan to add ASP.NET web project type to PowerBuilder Cloud Edition

  1. Helpful
  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Thursday, 4 April 2019 16:14 PM UTC
Hi BKR;

What Armeen was talking about in PB2019 is "down the road" - say PB2019R3 or after (PB2021). You can see this feature on the PB roadmap under the name "Desk Top Cloud App" (under the 2021 link). My understanding is that Appeon will be updating the PB very road-map soon. So stay tuned & revisit the road-map web page often to see any updates.

HTH

Regards ... Chris
  1. Helpful
There are no comments made yet.
Armeen Mazda @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Tuesday, 2 April 2019 12:28 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 3

In response to Kamal's 3 questions:

1. As of now (early 2019) Appeon does not have a solution for Linux / OSX end users. 

The new C# server-side features support ASP.NET pages.  The ASP.NET pages are not automatically generated for you, but PB 2019 does offer a business logic migration solution to "port" your non-visual code and DataWindows/DataStore data objects to C#.

2. Even in the distant future (2021?) Appeon will not provide a solution to deploy / migrate existing Appeon PB applications to the web (os independent cross-browser) without substantial rewrite?

Substantial means different things to different people.  There is no magic button you push and most or all the work is done for you.  But our business logic migration solution eliminates substantial amount of work compared to rewriting the entire app from scratch.

 

3. Appeon 2019 does NOT provide a solution to deploy data window applications to the web. It only converts data stores (which are not the same as data windows) to C#. For the front-end UI we will have to write code using some other development tools / environment ?

I the future revision of PB 2019 we plan to add ASP.NET web project type to PowerBuilder Cloud Edition.  If you cannot wait for the revision then you can start building out your ASP.NET pages using something free like Visual Studio code and use PB to migrate your business logic to C#.

 

Comment
There are no comments made yet.
kamal kapur Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Tuesday, 2 April 2019 03:43 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 4

I think Mathhieu has summed up the issues quite well. We have been having some very strong debates internally on what Appeon's roadmap really means. All the discussions here still leave an elephant in the room which apparently Appeon does not want to address. So let me rephrase some of the questions / issues in the hope of getting simple yes or no answers:
1. As of now (early 2019) Appeon does not have a solution for Linux / OSX end users. 
2. Even in the distant future (2021?) Appeon will not provide a solution to deploy / migrate existing Appeon PB applications to the web (os independant cross-browser)  without substantial rewrite?

3. Appeon 2019 does NOT provide a solution to deploy data window applications to the web. It only converts data stores (which are not the same as data windows) to C#. For the front-end UI we will have to write code using some other development tools / environment ?

I think Matthieu's closing remarks are very significant and Appeon should think seriously about them -- "will need a huge investment in UI development (with new developers to find as it's not the same job than developing a datawindow). And i think that companies who had already invested with PowerBuilder won't be very happy to make huge investment. And if it's just to use another C# Framework, they can go with any other Framework."

Regards

kamal

 

 

Comment
  1. Sivaprakash BKR
  2. Tuesday, 2 April 2019 05:34 AM UTC
I think Appeon moving towards Cloud Desktop application, which is NOT cross os on client side. On Service side Yes, with .net core framework. With Windows on client side, there won't be much re-write. atleast that's what Appeon claims.

  1. Helpful
  1. Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  2. Tuesday, 2 April 2019 12:18 PM UTC
Yes, you are exactly right. And the server-side technology supports ASP.NET pages in case you prefer HTML over a native app. But for customers looking to migrate an existing project to modern architecture the Desktop Cloud App would be less effort than rebuilding the UI with ASP.NET pages.
  1. Helpful
There are no comments made yet.
Rodney KEMPLER Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 29 March 2019 08:14 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 5

Just like Mr Kamal Kapur, remote desktop or similar is not the solution we are looking for.
We at GFI Software invested a lot on PowerBuilder to create a framework and a product relying heavily on the EAServer/PowerBuilder/Web DataWindow technology.
This is a pure browser based application as required by our customers (laboratories, state agencies and CROs).
The graphical possibilities of the DataWindow are the cornerstone of our software and are becoming useless on the server side for your IIS/C# implementation.
Right now we do not see how we can "port" our software to your proposed architecture without heavy investments.
It will be more a rewriting process and we also would hate to dump the classic Powerbuilder after having invested so much in it.

Regards,

Rodney Kempler

Comment
  1. Roland Smith
  2. Friday, 29 March 2019 19:11 PM UTC
You should attend the webinars and see what it is all about.
  1. Helpful
  1. Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  2. Friday, 29 March 2019 23:30 PM UTC
Rodney, If you want to stay with a PowerScript client but deploy to the cloud then we have two solutions for you. Either PowerServer Web (available now) or the Desktop Cloud App (one key feature of PB 2021). Both will require effort but should be much less than a rewrite. PowerServer Web will require less effort than Desktop Cloud App, but it has a licensing cost https://www.appeon.com/pricing/appeon-powerserver-pricing.html and not every single PB feature is supported.
  1. Helpful
  1. Rodney KEMPLER
  2. Wednesday, 3 April 2019 08:20 AM UTC
Armeen, we don't think at GFI that your two proposed solutions are satisfying:



As Roland Smith wrote "PowerServer is only a tool for deploying PowerBuilder desktop apps to the web in a way that looks almost exactly like the desktop app. It isn't for writing web apps with PowerBuilder."

We have currently a functional web application not a desktop app that is provided to our customers.

Once again, our web application and it’s framework was designed relying on the PowerBuilder Web Datawindow technology that you are killing…

We think you could have easily improved this Web DataWindow technology (we have some ideas about it...) and rewrite it with the new JSON functionalities.

We currently do not see the gain to go for PowerServer.



Regarding the Desktop Cloud application once more we have the same questions à Roland Smith and furthermore you are talking of 2021 (without unexpected delays...)

With the learning/rewriting process we could provide an updated software to our customers before 2023 at least!



Each of your proposed solution does not seem relevant to our immediate needs.

As mentioned by Matthieu you are driving us to huge investments without so much capital gain for our business.



  1. Helpful
There are no comments made yet.
Marco Meoni Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 22 March 2019 12:37 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 6

Hi all,
nice topic.
Kamal, there is no magic if you want to run cross-browser UI and datawindow-based B.L.
Only reasonable way is PB 2019 and its migration tool to C# server models, and then use any front-end Web framework for building crispy single-page applications.
Any attempt to embed PowerScript into ISAPI filters I am afraid will hit scalability issues.
PowerServer is amazing for existing projects that need a fast deployment and high ROI. But of course it has the limitations you outlined.
Application deployment is quickly moving towards container based approach and Appeon has it in its roadmap.
My suggestion is to trust faithful PB coming tools for the B.L., while picking up any opensource web framework out there for developing your modern fresh UI.
I've personally opted for JavaScript-based solutions like React or Vue.
I will join the PB Open webcast as an opportunity to compare what Gianluca is doing with my current consulting services based on combination of PB C# datastore and JavaScript Web frameworks.
Only missing pieces in my puzzle are Microservice target and Docker integration: luckily, during Elevate 2018, Armeen already committed to fill this gap! :P
Happy PB2019 everybody!
Best,
.m

Comment
  1. Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  2. Friday, 22 March 2019 16:28 PM UTC
Marco is exactly right. Simply running desktop PBVM on a server using ISAPI or other hacks is going to have scalability issues and stability issues because it was not designed for concurrency. There is a huge difference between something working OK for a few users and something being robust that you can rely on for a system that is important to your business. Appeon is not crazy to spend all the engineering resources to totally redesign the runtime for the new server features of PB 2019 if these hacks were workable solutions for most customers!



And YES, MicroService target and Docker integration coming in PB 2019 R2. But just to clarify, using Docker is also possible today. It's just in PB 2019 R2 the Docker integration would mean fewer manual steps you have to do yourself to package and deploy.
  1. Helpful
  1. Sivaprakash BKR
  2. Friday, 29 March 2019 08:28 AM UTC
Is there any document / blog explaining in detail, which cloud service is suitable to deploy 2019 applications, for newbies ? better if it includes both cloud and local intranet.

I've no idea about cloud. pointing resources to get started will be better.
  1. Helpful
  1. Matthieu CHOMIENNE
  2. Friday, 29 March 2019 11:36 AM UTC
Hi Marco,



I can hear that there is no magic but there is a tool in PowerBuilder named WebDatawindow which provides things to manipulate a datawindow in a browser. It manages the graphical part of the datawindow along with the data manipulation through a pseudo JS-Framework. Unfortunately, since Appeon and PowerBuilder 2017, this tool is no more available Used with EAServer to host the business logic on server side, we managed to build a fully functional web application that is used today by thousands of end-users (but mainly around 10 customers).



As David Peace said previously, the direction taken by Appeon with PowerBuilder is more of a new C# Framework. We lose major functionalities of ancient versions of PowerBuilder with no alternatives. The said solution of a migration path (a tool was mentioned some time ago but visibly, it's not at the agenda anymore) to port EASERVER/NVO components will need to rewrite the code (even if the logic is the same, the syntax of the languages are not the same and it needs some work to get it done) and will need a huge investment in UI development (with new developers to find as it's not the same job than developing a datawindow). And i think that companies who had already invested with PowerBuilder won't be very happy to make huge investment. And if it's just to use another C# Framework, they can go with any other Framework.



Maybe that the PB Open Webcast will make things clearer but for now, i'm not very confident on how i will be able to maintain an activity with PowerBuilder without investing at the same level as a full rewriting of our application...
  1. Helpful
There are no comments made yet.
Gian Luca De Bonis Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 22 March 2019 07:34 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 7

Here are the links to the Migrate to PB Open webinars. There are two webinars, the first more business-oriented:

http://www.powerbuildertv.com/index.php/en/upcoming-webinars/735-migrate-to-pb-open-modernize-architecture-and-ui

And the second, a technical session

http://www.powerbuildertv.com/index.php/en/upcoming-webinars/736-migrate-to-pb-open-modernize-technical-session

 

Comment
There are no comments made yet.
Roland Smith Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Sunday, 17 March 2019 15:41 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 8

In addition to requiring a plug-in that only works on Windows, PowerServer is only a tool for deploying PowerBuilder desktop apps to the web in a way that looks almost exactly like the desktop app. It isn't for writing web apps with PowerBuilder.

The new C# feature will allow for deploying non-visual objects to the web server. You still have to develop the web front end yourself in whatever language you choose.

I just uploaded a new version of PBDotWeb so if you've already downloaded, you should get it again.

The advantage it has is that you can run directly from the library. If you make a change to the code, just switch to your browser and click refresh. No need to compile.

 

Comment
  1. kamal kapur
  2. Monday, 18 March 2019 05:49 AM UTC
Thanks Roland.
  1. Helpful
  1. David Peace (Powersoft)
  2. Friday, 29 March 2019 09:59 AM UTC
The problem has always been the web front end and what tool to use. MVC helped address some of the issues but when you need any dynamic functionality you are going to be writing JavaScript and Html5 stuff to achieve it.



PB2019 C# stuff while being interesting is only part of the story and in essence is just another C# framework. Writing the UI will still be the biggest part of the application development and PB developers are A) not skilled in these technologies and B) do not really want to go back to NON RAD development. So this is always going to be a hard sell.



The PB framework in C# allows us to use syntax we understand rather than Entity Framework or LinQ with it's pseudo SQL confusing syntax. But once you have learned the syntax then it's not such a big issue. The PB C# stuff is great for developing web services that can manage the business logic and data access layer of your application.

I actually believe that we should still be using PB as a thin client change the way we talk about the EXE and call it an App. People accept using Apps as a normal thing to do and these then talk to a backend system to do stuff, so PB as an App with C# backend is a valid solution. I think long term there will be a move away from browser applications because of all the security issues that come with them.



That's my 30+ years of experience and wisdom... :)



David
  1. Helpful
  1. Gian Luca De Bonis
  2. Friday, 29 March 2019 20:14 PM UTC
Hi David. So far, the Appeon roadmap with the Web API is the only significant change in PB evolution to renovate our applications' architecture to an industry standard. It's not a proprietary solution, it's not half backed, and will give us the possibility to expose our logic in the proper way.

A significant problem is of course the UI. There is no easy/magic way to convert PB skills and apps to the modern and continuously changing UI frameworks. However, once we have upgraded our PB logic to a Web API, any technology is available for the UI. Having of course skills and resources.

That's why we've put together this migration program (Migrate to PB Open). We will show in the webinars what can be done with the Web API approach and PB2019, from a business point of view. We have put together methodology, training and resources to help PB developers to move their applications (and skills) to the next level.

  1. Helpful
There are no comments made yet.
kamal kapur Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Sunday, 17 March 2019 06:04 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 9

Hi Armeen,
It is quite heartening to note that the CEO of Appeon is himself taking active part in these discussions. Thanks.
My comment about "no way out" was based purely on the response we received in our support ticket on this very issue. In fact I was quite disappointed about it myself because I had actually gone through Appeon's PowerBuilder Roadmap quite thoroughly before switching to Powerbuilder.
To give you some background, I have spent almost 40 years in business systems design and development -- yes I am 63+ now :) I have seen Sybase lose the race to Oracle when they switched from APT to Powerbuilder without offering any migration tools. And now I am seeing Oracle losing to Visual Studio platform with c# and other .net languages quite simply because Oracle has not been able to offer a smooth migration from their Developer Suite to pure web applications.
I am now leading a project to convert a full blown ERP system involving approx. 1500 tables and 700+ screen forms from Oracle Forms and Reports to browser based web technologies. We started with Visual Studio and dotNet but found it to be a very tedious and slow process. It was then that someone suggested Powerbuilder and after going through the roadmap and blogs we decided to switch to Powerbuilder.
In my opinion Appeon is on the right track and could become the platform of choice for business applications. However, there is caveat. Appeon's PB suite can not be just another Visual Studio (that is a lost game even before it begins). It has to offer something totally different. That something would be the ability to develop complete applications using datawindows in the Powerbuilder IDE and then deploy them seamlessly on to any browser without requiring any plugin downloads (like the current multi-browser plugin which works on Windows only).
Honestly, I don't know if the 2019 beta does this or the roadmap will take us there and this is what I would like to know.

with regards

kamal

 

Comment
  1. Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  2. Sunday, 17 March 2019 19:36 PM UTC
Hi Kamal,



I apologize our support did not properly advise you. Our training for them focuses on troubleshooting bugs of the product rather than advising customers on technology direction.



Yes, it would be silly as you pointed out if our long-term goal was to be another Visual Studio. Our long-term direction is to go vertical while keeping focus on improving developer productivity of building business apps. What you see in PB 2019 is just one baby step.



Regards,

Armeen
  1. Helpful
  1. kamal kapur
  2. Monday, 18 March 2019 05:59 AM UTC
Guess it's time to download PB 2019 and try it out. This has been a very useful discussion. Thanks to everyone for their views and comments.
  1. Helpful
There are no comments made yet.
Armeen Mazda @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 15 March 2019 19:00 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 10

Hi Kamal,

I'm very surprised by your comment that with PowerBuilder "there is no way out".  Ever since we took over PowerBuilder we have been strongly promoting that the technology direction for PowerBuilder is to be open, following standards, and cloud compatible, and we have made big engineering investments to accomplish this. 

I guess you have not spent time looking at the PowerBuilder roadmap, reading about the features of PowerBuilder 2019, or trying out the beta version?  Hmmm... that's a little discouraging for us that loyal PowerBuilder users like yourself are so out of touch.

Just to clarify, PowerBuilder 2019 provides a C# migration solution to move PowerBuilder business logic to C# Web APIs or assemblies, and these C# projects are totally open both from a development perspective and runtime perspective.  In other words, you can use any IDE to maintain these C# projects and you can run on cross-OS server supported by the .NET Core (e.g. Linux).

These are no longer the Sybase days!  

Regards,

Armeen Mazda
CEO, Appeon

Comment
There are no comments made yet.
Gian Luca De Bonis Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 15 March 2019 14:29 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 11

This is the link to our "Migrate to PB Open" page. I tried to synthesize in a few words the program, but take a look at the page, you will find more info about it.

https://www.powerbuilder.eu/consulting/migrate-to-pb-open

The webinar will be run on April 24, will post more info soon!

 

Comment
  1. kamal kapur
  2. Saturday, 16 March 2019 12:49 PM UTC
Thanks Gian.
  1. Helpful
There are no comments made yet.
Chris Pollach @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 15 March 2019 14:22 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 12

Hi Kamal,

  Yes, I saw Gian Luca's post about their new PB Open product. I have not seen it or heard about this product prior to Gian's post. So it will be interesting to see what he has "cooked up".  Gian has built some pretty amazing PB add-on software over the years - so it could be well worth a close look. It will be interesting to see.

Regards ... Chris

 

Comment
  1. Gian Luca De Bonis
  2. Friday, 15 March 2019 16:49 PM UTC
Thanks Chris. Join us for the April 24 webinar please, and feel free to share any feedback.
  1. Helpful
  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Friday, 15 March 2019 17:36 PM UTC
Thanks Gian ...please let us know when & how to register! ;-)
  1. Helpful
  1. Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  2. Friday, 15 March 2019 18:51 PM UTC
PB Open is not a product. It is a methodology combined with consulting services that leverages the new features of PowerBuilder 2019 to help customers move their apps to C# and cloud with whatever UI technology they would like.
  1. Helpful
There are no comments made yet.
kamal kapur Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 15 March 2019 07:27 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 13

Would love to attend it.

with regards

 

Comment
There are no comments made yet.
kamal kapur Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 15 March 2019 07:19 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 14

Thanks Roland. Chris Pollach has already pointed me towards this and I will definitely try this out. Give me some time and I will give you feedback on my experience.

with regards

 

Comment
There are no comments made yet.
kamal kapur Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 15 March 2019 07:17 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 15

Thanks Chris. This sounds interesting and I will definitely try it out.

Meanwhile, there is this reply from Gianluca about "Migrate to PB Open" which claims to give "a modern architecture (server-side, multi-platform) with a modern UI (any browser, any platform, native mobile apps, multi-platform client: you choose what you need), ". I am wondering how much of this is true because PB support has categorically told us "there is no way out". Would like to hear what you have to say about this.

 

Comment
  1. Roland Smith
  2. Friday, 15 March 2019 12:57 PM UTC
He is using the new PB 2019 C# features to deploy PowerBuilder logic to a server. What the front-end browser code is made from isn't mentioned.
  1. Helpful
  1. Gian Luca De Bonis
  2. Friday, 15 March 2019 16:58 PM UTC
Kamal, I know that it sounds too beautiful to be true. In fact we are leveraging the Appeon Roadmap, that we find beautiful and appropriate for migrating a data-centric app to more open solution. Our program is a set of techniques, resources, and the know-how on the migration. We help customers to rewrite their PB business logic in PB-like pure .Net by using the Appeon-developed framework (Snap objects). And we offer Agile-backed development services to create the UI of their dreams to their own Web API. For the front-end we can use any kind of technology, as the customer needs. Javascript-based, Java, Python, .Net/C#, Xamarin, ... you name it.
  1. Helpful
There are no comments made yet.
Chris Pollach @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 14 March 2019 19:38 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 16

Hi Kamal;

   Unfortunately, Appeon's current PowerServer Web option only works on MS-Windows client based browsers as you have correctly stated.

   However, you might want to consider Roland's PBDotWeb alternative and go pure HTML ( 

http://www.topwizprogramming.com/tools.html ). That should have your App work on any browser platform. Note that this alternative is not Appeon supported.

Regards ... Chris

Comment
  1. Roland Smith
  2. Thursday, 14 March 2019 20:36 PM UTC
I just yesterday finished a rewrite of the documentation so installation should be smoother.
  1. Helpful
There are no comments made yet.
Gian Luca De Bonis Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 14 March 2019 15:50 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 17

Hi Kamal,

We are launching a program called "Migrate to PB Open", that leverages the Appeon Roadmap (migration of the PB Business Logic, Datawindows and embedded SQL to a Web API based on .Net Core), and rewrites the UI in any technology you need.

The result is a modern architecture (server-side, multi-platform) with a modern UI (any browser, any platform, native mobile apps, multi-platform client: you choose what you need), and with the business logic that resembles the PB business logic that we all love.

The program helps you to migrate your PowerBuilder Business Logic to a Web API, and uses Agile methodologies to implement the UI of your dreams, directly connected to your new Web API.

We are running a webinar in few weeks to show the program. If you need more info, feel free to contact me at: gianluca.debonis@enable-dev.com

Kind regards,

GL

 

Comment
There are no comments made yet.
Roland Smith Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 14 March 2019 14:09 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 18

I created a free tool that allows you to run PowerBuilder code in IIS directly from PBL files. The HTML of the page is generated in PowerScript and can be combined with static HTML files before being streamed back to the browser. It also supports streaming images, PDF, and any other binary file that your browser supports. The demo shows how you can retrieve a datastore, save it to PDF using NativePDF, and stream it back to the browser.

I does not automatically convert windows to HTML. It is similar in concept to Classic ASP where HTML is generated through a combination of static HTML and vbscript code.

The main technical drawback I am aware of is that web hosting sites like GoDaddy probably won't let you install ISAPI Extensions on a shared web server. You would need your own dedicated web server on site or in the cloud. On the plus side, the client browser can be on any operating system because it is 100% server based.

I haven't performed a high volume test on it but in single user tests it is very fast. I would love to get some feedback on it.

Go here and download PBDotWeb:

http://www.topwizprogramming.com/tools.html

 

Comment
There are no comments made yet.
Armeen Mazda @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 14 March 2019 06:09 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 19

Hi Kamal,

Based on what you have said and your replies, the best option I see is that you migrate your PowerScript business logic and DataWindows to C# assemblies using the new features of PowerBuilder 2019 Cloud Edition.  Take a look at the "C# Migration Solution" tab on this page: https://www.appeon.com/developers/pb-2019-beta.html

The new C# features are built on the .NET Core so you are not limited only to Windows servers.  You could run Linux servers, use Kestrel web server, go serverless, etc.

For the HTML UI you would need to hand-code that in ASP.NET, but at least the heavy lifting part of your app could be salvaged.  My guess is this would save you at least 50% of the effort compared to a full rewrite.  So if you do want to go HTML I still think it makes sense to use PowerBuilder to do that.

Regards,
Armeen

Comment
There are no comments made yet.
kamal kapur Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 14 March 2019 05:46 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 20

Remote desktop or similar is not the solution I am looking for; as a matter of fact we are currently using AppAnywhere as a temp solution. I want a pure browser based application that can be accessed on any pc / desktop running Windows, Linux or OSX regardless of the backend server platform. I know we could do it using Visual Studio. We ran a pilot on this before switching to PB because of the datawindow concept. And I would hate to switch back to Visual Studio after having invested so much in Powerbuilder.

Comment
There are no comments made yet.
  • Page :
  • 1
  • 2


There are no replies made for this question yet.
However, you are not allowed to reply to this question.
We use cookies which are necessary for the proper functioning of our websites. We also use cookies to analyze our traffic, improve your experience and provide social media features. If you continue to use this site, you consent to our use of cookies.