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Resolved Running non-visual apps in containers

  1. How-to
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  1. Roland Smith
    Roland Smith
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. Friday, 15 March 2024 13:51 PM UTC

PowerBuilder 2022 GA 1892, SQL Server

Our web application is written in C# and to run reports, we link out to a non-visual PowerBuilder app that returns NativePDF blobs for presentation in the browser.

We want to be able to run the web application in containers. Our container expert is testing Windows Server Core in Docker. Has anyone tried doing this?

The runtime installer fails. We do have our own installer that deploys just the Runtime DLLs needed by our app. I'll have him try that.

Error when displaying the scrollbar of a datawindo...
Windows Defender blocks and delete application
Responses (3)
Roland Smith
Roland Smith Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Monday, 18 March 2024 13:27 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 1

I used the Depends tool on a non-visual EXE and some of the PB Runtime DLLs and found that there are a lot of required DLLs:

advapi32.dll, comctl32.dll, comdlg32.dll, crypt32.dll, gdi32.dll, gdiplus.dll, 
imm32.dll, kernel32.dll, msimg32.dll, ole32.dll, oleacc.dll, oleaut32.dll, 
oledlg.dll, shell32.dll, shlwapi.dll, uiautomationcore.dll, user32.dll, 
uxtheme.dll, version.dll, winhttp.dll, winmm.dll, winspool.drv, wsock32.dll

It looks like it requires the same list of DLLs whether it has windows or not. It would be better if system DLLs were loaded dynamically as needed instead of having hard references.

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Arnd Schmidt
  1. Arnd Schmidt
  2. Monday, 18 March 2024 13:57 PM UTC
Hi Roland,

is that a new feature to create non-visual exe or is it just a terminology that you use?
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Roland Smith
  1. Roland Smith
  2. Monday, 18 March 2024 14:07 PM UTC
My terminology, just a program without windows.

We have several that run on schedule and perform processing without need for user input. One is called directly from C# web pages.

We are looking into containers, hoping to use Windows Server Core for our C# web app but if the PB programs don't work, we'll have to use full Windows Server.
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mike S
  1. mike S
  2. Tuesday, 19 March 2024 13:40 PM UTC
i think if you load the container with required windows dlls, it may allow it to run. i'd just put them in with the PB dlls.
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mike S
mike S Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Saturday, 16 March 2024 02:21 AM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 2

following.  I also had sent this in as an enhancement request.  

My guess is that there is some dependency on a GUI api (that core doesn't include) even if the app is completely non visual.

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Roland Smith
Roland Smith Accepted Answer Pending Moderation
  1. Friday, 15 March 2024 15:06 PM UTC
  2. PowerBuilder
  3. # 3

After manually deploying the PB runtime, the programs are hanging. Not sure why.

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Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  1. Armeen Mazda @Appeon
  2. Friday, 15 March 2024 17:47 PM UTC
Did you test doing exact same thing on the "Core" edition of Windows Server without docker. This way you can rule out if it is OS issue or Docker issue.
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Roland Smith
  1. Roland Smith
  2. Friday, 15 March 2024 18:24 PM UTC
The person working on this doesn't work on Friday, I'll suggest that.
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