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Resolved How best to publish parts of PB application to a web interface?

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  1. Vlad V.
    Vlad V.
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Friday, 6 April 2018 10:20 AM UTC

Hi, 

SQL Anywhere 16 / PB 2017 R2 #1756

We have a comprehensive Win32 system that we have been maintaining for quite a few years, but are looking at possibilities of starting to port some of the crucial segments of it to a web interface, at first in small steps, just basic functionality for entering trades or stationary data in the database through IE/Chrome/FF. 

We have just migrated to PB 2017 from 11.5, but had no time to do a lot of research about other development tooklits that come with Powerbuilder, namely PowerServer and PowerMobile. I understand PowerMobile is used mainly to deploy PB to tablet/mobile environments such as Android and iOS.

However, does it (or other parts of Powerbuilder toolkit) offer the possibilities to quickly publish datawindows to HTML / other ML web forms, and regenerating some of the powerscript code to, for example, JS? We are trying to see what is the optimal and quickest way to reuse any of the components of our PB application to create the smaller scale web application? 

Perhaps this is not possible through PowerServer/PowerMobile, but if there are some options for this, we'd warmly appreciate a few pointers, opinions, and links towards the literature or guides.

Thanks

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Responses (2)
Chris Pollach @Appeon
Chris Pollach @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 6 April 2018 15:36 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

Hi Vlad;

  Yes, PowerServer Web would be the product you need to transpose your PB App's into a web architecture that will then allow you to render the App within a standard browser like Edge, Chrome, FireFox or IE. You can read more about this in the PowerServer product section of the Appeon website.

  Another Application development & deployment alternative within the PowerServer Web product is a feature called IWA (Installable Web Application). This feature leverages your web (now N-tier) enabled Apps but runs them as if they were a native desktop app. However, the Apps are is still maintained within the PowerServer repository for a  single point of deployment. The business App users only deal with a short-cut that behind the scenes points to the PowerServer's App URL. You can view the IWA feature in more detail by following this link - click here!

 

  When building web applications in PB for PowerServer, there is no reason that they cannot be refactored into a proper web (or even mobile) look & feel. I gave a presentation on how to do this at the 2015 PB Conference in Charlotte. PM me and I can send you a copy ( Chris.Dot.Pollach.AT.Appeon.Dot.com  [edit accordingly] ).

Regards ... Chris

 

 

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Roland Smith
Roland Smith Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 6 April 2018 12:43 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 2

PowerServer is what you need. It converts the entire app, not just a DataWindow. Your app will look pretty much the same as on the desktop except runs over the web.

Personally I would rather be able to create a web app in PowerBuilder that looked like a web app, not a desktop app. For that I think you would have to create a new PowerBuilder window that looks 'web appy' and deploy that through PowerServer.

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Vlad V.
  1. Vlad V.
  2. Friday, 6 April 2018 15:01 PM UTC
Thanks very much Roland. Sounds like good news. 



Yes, we assumed the app will look the same on the web as it does now. Not the best news, but obviously without some sort of sorcery PowerServer cannot turn the present Win32 desktop look and datawindows into anything "web appy".



Still, just to imagine that PowerServer can convert a desktop PB application into some sort of web application that runs through any browser (is that right?) is remarkable.



We have had 0 exposure and time so far to investigate and muck about PowerServer. Could you or anyone recommend some useful reading material or guides/tutorials?





Thanks

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Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  1. Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  2. Friday, 6 April 2018 17:08 PM UTC
Try the PowerServer courses on Appeon-U: https://www.appeon.com/appeon-u

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Vlad V.
  1. Vlad V.
  2. Monday, 9 April 2018 08:53 AM UTC
Cheers

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