This is a compilation of tips you can and should follow to help you get answers to your questions in the Appeon Community Q&A forum, based on several years of my asking, following and answering posts. Not every tip listed here is applicable to every type of question, and these tips are not a guarantee your question will be resolved, of course, but they should help.

If you follow these tips, you will improve the likelihood of getting helpful responses, and the interaction between you and responders will become more efficient and require fewer iterations.

You may be familiar with some of these tips. Here’s a list of the tips I’ll cover and the order they appear; in case you wish to pick and choose:

• Utilize AI before you ask your question in the forum.
• Perform a web search.
• Understand the difference between Community assistance and Technical Support.
• Make use of Appeon product support.
• Reporting bugs.
• Product enhancement suggestions.
• Summarize the question/issue in the title.
• Remember your target audience when describing your issue.
• Clearly explain what you expected to happen and what actually happened.
• Explain what you have already tried.
• Clearly describe your environment.
• Database vendor, version, and connection information.
• Source Code Control (SCC) questions should describe your SCC environment.
• Expand the initial use of non-Appeon acronyms.
• Provide a small, reproducible example.
• Ensure screen snapshots will be legible when posted.
• Use the code editor to include source code in your question.
• Don’t “Hijack” older Q&A threads.
• Follow up on your question and acknowledge helpful responses.
• A Q&A posting checklist.

I've also attached a zip'd Word document that contains the contents of this post, in case you wish to print it and have it nearby to refer to when you are posting questions.

Let’s get started!

Utilize AI Before You Ask Your Question in the Forum

The best question is one where you find the answer without help from anyone!

If you have access to an Artificial Intelligence (AI) platform, try asking it your question before posting it in the Q&A forum. Please keep in mind, however, that AI-generated responses are not always accurate, particularly when dealing with product-specific functionality or differences between PowerBuilder versions.

Perform a Web Search

A web search may return information you may find useful. You will also get a response from a web search much faster than a person will respond in the Q&A forum! Just as with AI, however, be aware that web search results may not always be accurate.

Many web search engines allow you to restrict a search to a requested domain by including the keyword “site:” followed by the domain, such as the following example which limits a web search to Appeon-provided product documentation:

   site:docs.appeon.com

The on-site search capabilities of the Q&A forum are unfortunately (and admittedly), well, to put it kindly, they are lacking. Include the “site:” keyword as shown below to search the contents of the Q&A forum using a web search engine as an alternative to using the search functionality within the forum:

   site:community.appeon.com/index.php/qna/q-a

Understand the Difference Between Community Assistance and Technical Support

Dozens of unpaid, experienced and caring developers volunteer their expertise in the Q&A forum to answer questions regarding the use of Appeon products in their free time. In other words, the Q&A forum is staffed primarily by developers who want to help other developers. Therefore, the Q&A forum is not a Technical Support portal. Since people respond when they have free time available, you should never expect or demand an immediate response to any question or issue. If the issue is critical and a quick response is needed, the purchase of a premium support ticket may be your best option. Standard and premium support tickets will be described shortly.

Although a small, but knowledgeable cadre of Appeon employees will occasionally respond to questions (notwithstanding the prolific expert-extraordinaire Chris Pollach), you should not expect Appeon to respond to questions posted in the Q&A forum, because it is a developer’s forum.

Make Use of Appeon Product Support

Appeon provides two levels of product support: Standard (free) and Premium (not free). Refer to the following web pages for a description of each:

   https://www.appeon.com/appeon-standard-support-plan.html

   https://www.appeon.com/premium-support.html

If you require more than an answer to a Q&A forum question, Appeon has teamed up with several consulting partners. More information can be obtained here:

   https://www.appeon.com/consultants

Reporting Bugs

If you believe you have discovered a bug in any Appeon product, the Q&A forum is not the proper place to report it. Instead, use the following URL to open a free bug ticket so that Appeon can properly track the issue:

    https://www.appeon.com/standardsupport/newbug

Product Enhancement Suggestions

To suggest a product enhancement, open a free bug ticket and clearly indicate in the title that the ticket is in regards to an enhancement request:

    https://www.appeon.com/standardsupport/newbug

Summarize the Question/Issue in the Title

Use a short, descriptive title that identifies the subject of your question. Avoid titles written entirely in uppercase, overly long titles, and vague titles such as “DataWindow Question” or “SQL Error”. For example:

   Less Helpful                       More Helpful
   Help with DataWindow          DataWindow Retrieve Returns No Rows, But SQL is Valid
   PB 2025 Problem                  PB 2025 Solution Application Crashes on Startup
   SQL Error                             SQL Server Connection Fails After Deployment

The title is a summary – save the details for the body of the question.

Remember Your Target Audience When Describing Your Issue

Always keep in mind that the people reading your questions are not working alongside you or looking over your shoulder, nor are they familiar with your application or business use-cases. You should therefore try to explain things as if the reader knows nothing about your situation, which unsurprisingly, is almost certainly the case.

Clearly Explain What You Expected to Happen and What Actually Happened

When you are communicating a problem issue, it is very important to explain what you are trying to accomplish, what you expected to happen, and what actually happened instead. If possible, provide the steps needed to reproduce the issue. This greatly helps everyone understand the issue and makes it easier for responders (please remember they are unpaid volunteers) to verify and investigate the issue.

If an error message is displayed, include the complete, exact message instead of paraphrasing it. Also mention whether the problem occurs consistently or only under certain circumstances.

Explain What You Have Already Tried

Describe the troubleshooting steps you’ve already taken and their results. If you’ve found potentially relevant documentation or previous Q&A posts, provide a link to them and explain why their suggestions didn’t resolve your issue.

Clearly Describe Your Environment

Describe your environment at the start of your question. It’s very helpful for others to know:

• Your Windows version.
• The Appeon product (PowerBuilder, PowerServer, InfoMaker, PowerClient, etc.)
• Version, release, and build of the Appeon product.

For PowerBuilder and .Net questions, also describe:

• The runtime architecture (32-bit or 64-bit).
• For PowerBuilder 2025 and higher, whether the application is in Workspace or Solution format.
• If you are using a runtime version different from the PowerBuilder IDE.
• Whether the issue occurs in the IDE, deployed application, or both.
• If applicable, the .Net version.

It is also often helpful to know if your application uses an application framework, such as the Software Tool and Die (STD) or the PowerBuilder Foundation Class (PFC) libraries, for example.

Database Vendor, Version, and Connection Information

For questions that involve a database, it is nearly always necessary to know the database vendor (Oracle, SQL Server, Postgres, etc.), its version, and Transaction Object properties, particularly the DBMS and DBParm property values (always remember to mask out sensitive values).

Source Code Control (SCC) Questions Should Describe Your SCC Environment

If your question concerns source code control, it is necessary to adequately explain your SCC environment, including the software tool(s) you use.

Expand the Initial Use of Non-Appeon Acronyms

If your issue involves products and/or technologies a reader may not be familiar with, please expand the initial use of unusual or uncommon acronyms or explain the product(s) or technology in use.

Provide a Small, Reproducible Example

Small, example applications that demonstrate your issue are extremely helpful, both to forum responders and to Appeon Product Support.

If you would like someone to verify what you suspect is a bug before submitting a bug ticket to Appeon Support, then by all means, ask! A small, reproducible test case should be included in such a request, however, when appropriate.

Ensure Screen Snapshots Will be Legible When Posted

The inclusion of screenshots can be very helpful. However, it is often not necessary to post a full-screen screenshot.

The Q&A forum downsizes dimensionally-large images, to the point where the contents may not be legible after posting. Consider instead using cropped screenshots that contains the visual information you wish to convey.

Windows utilities such as Snipping Tool and/or Paint can be helpful in cropping a full-screen screenshot to its useful portion and, if necessary, also masking sensitive information.

Use the Code Editor to Include Source Code in Your Question

If you want to include more than a couple of lines of source code in your post, please consider using the forum's Code Editor. A past Q&A forum tip shows you what you need to know:

   https://community.appeon.com/qna/q-a/q-a-forum-tip-including-source-code-in-your-question

Don’t “Hijack” Older Q&A Threads

If you need to post a question and find an older post that contains similar conditions to your issue, resist the urge to post your question in the older, existing thread.

It is understandable why people do this, but realize that when people see a new response to older questions, many will assume your post is not a new question and therefore they will not be inclined to view/revisit the older thread’s content. Instead, post your question in a new thread to increase the likelihood of getting views and hopefully, responses. You may wish to include a link to the older, similar Q&A thread.

Of course, if you have information to add to an older question, or if you wish to acknowledge the answer in an older question was helpful to you, then by all means do so!

Follow Up on Your Question and Acknowledge Helpful Responses

When someone responds to your question, please make an effort to reply, particularly if they request additional information or suggest a possible solution.

If a response resolves your problem, mark it as the accepted answer when possible. If you discover the solution yourself, post it as a new response in the thread and mark it as the accepted answer. The answer may help someone else experiencing the same or similar problem in the future.

Here’s a link to an earlier post that humorously drives this point home:

    https://community.appeon.com/qna/q-a/please-update-your-queries-with-the-solution

A Q&A Posting Checklist

Before you click the “Submit” button, ask yourself:

• Is the title short and descriptive?
• Have I adequately described my environment?
• Have I clearly explained the problem, expected behavior, and actual results?
• Have I included the exact error message(s), if any?
• Have I explained what I’ve already tried?
• Have I provided relevant source code and/or screenshots?
• Have I removed sensitive information?
• Could someone unfamiliar with my application understand my question?

If you avail yourself of the tips described here, you will greatly improve the likelihood of getting a helpful response to your question, and more importantly, you won’t have to waste time going through multiple iterations of questions from responders asking for clarification regarding information you omitted.