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Resolved Modernizing application (PowerBuilder 2022) to new Platform

  1. How-to
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  1. Suresh Thoduvail
    Suresh Thoduvail
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 15:57 PM UTC

Hi Experts,

My client wants to modernize our application (PowerBuilder 2022) and re-platform (Client considers PowerBuilder as Legacy old technology).

Seeking expert advice as to what is the next best tool available in the market which has withstood time and support (like PowerBuilder):

 

Here are a couple of my client's requirements/expectations (business wants similar interface that PB provides but with modern technology):

1. Modernize PowerBuilder Application to new robust client server model (business/clients considers PowerBuilder as Legacy software/Technology)

2. Have user interface just like PowerBuilder with right click menu and popup windows to enter Notes (Client/Server Model)

3. Access and integrate real time data from multiple applications (including OpenText Content Server and other Web applications)

4. Ability to Integrate with Microsoft Outlook (as the client want all the emails sent from the application to be viewed and updated to the application), view emails from the application with ability to view the attached documents.

5. Display home page contents based on a user's preference and include or exclude items for screening, favorites, task/to-do list. Add data view or remove data view from other web-based applications that work with similar (or master) data.

6. Automated notifications to users within the application based on business rules, ability to subscribe to notifications, opt out, delete notifications.

7. Have robust spell check.

8. Have robust security feature.

9. Ease of deployment.

 

Some of the Software that offer similar client/Server user interface and the drawback I understand/assume from what is available (please correct me if wrong):

1. Oracle Forms - > soon to be out of support.

2. C# Forms --> hard to integrate with database (if the data grid or form is not used)

3. Silverlight --> difficult integration with database (out of support).

Experts advise what is my safe bet. Your Industry experience and recommendations is highly appreciated.

 

Thanks

Suresh.T

  1. .NET Std Framework
  2. Database Painter
  3. Oracle
  4. PowerBuilder (Appeon)
MSOLEDBSQL19 - Cannot create new connection
Unable to start PB2022 on another PC although not ...
Responses (7)
Roland Smith
Roland Smith Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Thursday, 18 May 2023 17:05 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

Replacing a working PowerBuilder app solely because some pointy haired boss calls it legacy is a recipe for disaster. Management should present business requirements and the developers should choose how to implement it. If the business requirements can't be done in PowerBuilder, the developers can make that decision.

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Suresh Thoduvail
  1. Suresh Thoduvail
  2. Thursday, 18 May 2023 18:46 PM UTC
I agree Roland, this application has been the most stable one in our entire organization. The management sees this PB application as not latest cut through technology, and they want to modernize it.
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Christopher Altvater
Christopher Altvater Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 20:05 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 2

Hello Suresh,

You mentioned OpenText and you have two options with it. You can use the PB HttpClient object and the OpenText API to get the documents.

If you have on premise OpenText database, you can directly query it to get the document IDs and then format the URL to retrieve in the web browser control. For a single document, I use something like http://<server name>/otcs/cs.exe?func=doc.Fetch&nodeID=123456 to view the document in the browser control.

Either way you can view your OpenText documents inside of a PB application. 

Chris

 

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Suresh Thoduvail
  1. Suresh Thoduvail
  2. Thursday, 18 May 2023 14:59 PM UTC
Thank much Chris for the info/tip. Yes we have on premise OTCS DB (Just need to bridge the security barrier between databases).
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Suresh Thoduvail
Suresh Thoduvail Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 17:43 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 3

Hi Miguel, agree. Finding a replacement for Datawindow of PowerBuilder would be one of my biggest challenges. This has been and probably will be the biggest strength of PowerBuilder (have been working with PB from version 5.0).  I have seen migrations to new technology fail very often. Once example is when a Silverlight developer re-coded the existing PB application in dot net and Silverlight (front end) and the save button randomly did not save/committed the changes to the database.

Comment
Miguel Leeuwe
  1. Miguel Leeuwe
  2. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 17:47 PM UTC
I don't know the size of your application. How many years is the estimate?

I've seen several projects like this being estimated at 2 / 3 years and after 5 or 10 years and huge costs, management decides to stay with powerbuilder.

regards.
  1. Helpful 1
Suresh Thoduvail
  1. Suresh Thoduvail
  2. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 17:58 PM UTC
The client has been talking about re-platforming for about 7 years now, but Appeon kept strong with support and new releases/features.

The number of years could vary depending on new platform being used (I am estimating 2 / 3 years should be good enough timeframe to re-platform) and it also depends on the new enhancements asked / financial cost (they might totally re-consider and have done so before due to cost implications).

Application is around 33 libraries around 45MB in total size (PBD's).



This time it might be a little different, the client is ready to take a small portion/modules of the application working and build as we go (they have used this approach to Legacy Cobol application). The Client philosophy is "Yes we know it is not perfect/complete and has issues/bugs, but we will release it to production and fix as we go"

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Miguel Leeuwe
Miguel Leeuwe Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 17:10 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 4

I don't want to be rude, but to me, it sounds like your client needs ... Powerbuilder / Powerserver.

Many, many, many of this kind of projects fail. Maybe, if the application is not too big, it can be done.

Your first biggest challenge is to find something to replace the datawindows with (and all of it's possibly used column attributes, expressions, computed columns etc.).

Good luck.

Comment
Miguel Leeuwe
  1. Miguel Leeuwe
  2. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 17:13 PM UTC
And don't forget that you'll probably have to pull your specifications by looking at the existing code, which may or may not be always working correctly.
  1. Helpful 1
Suresh Thoduvail
  1. Suresh Thoduvail
  2. Thursday, 18 May 2023 15:01 PM UTC
Yes that is true, we do not have the design specifications of application that was built in the early 2000's.
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Suresh Thoduvail
Suresh Thoduvail Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 16:57 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 5

Hi Chris, when i meant re-platform what I meant is the Client wants to move to a new technology (they consider PB as Legacy). They want to move the application to dot net or some other platform ( I still remember the rush to move from PowerBuilder to Java in early 2000's :). HTH - Suresh

Comment
Chris Pollach @Appeon
  1. Chris Pollach @Appeon
  2. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 18:15 PM UTC
I hate it when "clients" think that they know what other technology IT needs to move to - when their current PB App(s) function well. :-(

Using PB 2022 though, there is no reason (IMHO) that this release could not address your "wish" list . In fact, I think that you could accomplish these items using even lower version of PB. I hope that you can prove to your user base that App modernization is totally doable with Appeon PB. ;-)
  1. Helpful 1
Suresh Thoduvail
  1. Suresh Thoduvail
  2. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 19:44 PM UTC
Hi Chris, I feel the same way, it is hard to remove the notion that PowerBuilder is Legacy application as there is no one learning PB anymore and they worry that they need to move to Microsoft or Other High end company technology that has wide support/developer base. I have been laughing to my Bank (just a saying) since the early 1999 (when there was a talk that PB is going to die soon, and everyone was already migrating PB applications to Java as you could hire a Java developer easily as Java developers were available a dime a dozen).
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Chris Pollach @Appeon
Chris Pollach @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 16:51 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 6

Hi Suresh;

   What do you mean by the comment "re-platform"?

Regards ... Chris

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Francisco Martinez @Appeon
Francisco Martinez @Appeon Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Wednesday, 17 May 2023 16:14 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 7

Isn't Silverlight dead? Apparently it reached End of Support about two years ago. It might not be a good idea to use it for new development, IMO.

Regards,
Francisco

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