Friday, December 28, 2012

AP Database & Technology Academy - How to Consume a Web Service in PowerBuilder Classic

One of my videos for the SAP Database and Technology Academy.  Other PowerBuilder related videos can be found there as well at http://www.youtube.com/user/saptechnology/videos?query=PowerBuilder.



SAP Database & Technology Academy - How to Create a .NET Web Service in PowerBuilder Classic

One of my videos for the SAP Database and Technology Academy.  Other PowerBuilder related videos can be found there as well at http://www.youtube.com/user/saptechnology/videos?query=PowerBuilder.


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Another game developer indicates HTML5 is not ready for prime time

From the TabTimes site.  Not that I'm into game development.  It's just that I think line of business (LOB) application development approaches the complexity of game development.  Therefore a platform that presents game developers with issues would present similar issues to LOB application developers.

 

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

In defense of HTML5...

Sencha, the makers of an HTML5 framework, were apparently upset about Mark Zuckerberg (CEO of Facebook) indicating that HTML5 was not ready for prime time.  In response, they developed Fastbook, a Facebook clone using Facebook's API for the iPhone and Android operation systems.  The also have opened up an "HTML5 is Ready" website where they are offering over $20K in prizes for people generating HTML5 web sites.

Friday, December 07, 2012

SAP Database & Technology Academy - How to use Non-Visual .NET Assemblies in PowerBuilder Classic Win32 apps

One of my videos for the SAP Database and Technology Academy.  Other PowerBuilder related videos can be found there as well at http://www.youtube.com/user/saptechnology/videos?query=PowerBuilder.


SAP Database & Technology Academy - How to use visual .NET Assemblies in PowerBuilder Classic Win32 apps

One of my videos for the SAP Database and Technology Academy.  Other PowerBuilder related videos can be found there as well at http://www.youtube.com/user/saptechnology/videos?query=PowerBuilder.


SAP Database & Technology Academy - How to Create a WCF Web Service in PowerBuilder

One of my videos for the SAP Database and Technology Academy.  Other PowerBuilder related videos can be found there as well at http://www.youtube.com/user/saptechnology/videos?query=PowerBuilder.


RIP Silverlight, we hardly knew you...

Apparently the Silverlight.net site has been taken down and replaced with a redirect to a page on MSDN.  Just one more sign of the slow demise of the product.  So sad.  They could have at least waited until HTML5 was ready to replace it...

Monday, December 03, 2012

Using Code Snippets in PowerBuilder.Net

clipwindow.PNGIf you are a big fan of the clip window in Classic PowerBuilder, you may have wondered what happened to it in PowerBuilder.Net.  You might have even been told that code snippets replaced it, but have no idea how to use them.  This article will hopefully address that issue.   We're going to walk through creating a code snippet, adding it to the PowerBuilder.Net IDE, and then using it in a scripting window.

Code Snippets actually have a lot more capabilities than the Clip Window, but they also require a little more work to setup.  The first thing you need to do when you want to create a new Code Snippet is create a new text file (doesn't matter where) with a ".snippet" extension.  Code Snippets are actually stored in XML, and most of the XML tags in the snippet contain metadata about the snippet.  Go ahead and paste the following into the top of that new text document you just created.


Friday, November 09, 2012

Actuate One Conference

On November 8th, 2012, I attended the one day ActuateOne Live! conference put on by Actuate in San Francisco.  The following are some of my notes from that event.

Friday, October 26, 2012

Implementing Drag and Drop from your application to Windows Explorer

Getting PowerBuilder to accept file drops from Windows Explorer is fairly straightforward.  Getting it to support drag and drop of files from your application to Windows Explorer is actually fairly straightforward as well, but not entirely obvious.  We're going to start looking at how to do with starting with the .Net target types (WPF and .Windows Form) and then look to see how we might use the same technique for Classic Win32 applications.


Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Using Autoincrementing Columns from a PowerBuilder DataWindow

Note:  This blog entry is basically the written version of a video I did for the SAP Database and Technology Academy.  You can either watch the video or read the blog entry, or both if you're so inclined.



Don't miss the SAP Database & Technology Academy

It's a series of short (e.g., < 15 minute) videos explaining how to use various SAP products.  Here's the first set for PowerBuilder, with more coming soon.

Friday, October 19, 2012

PowerBuilder Developer's Conference - Day 5 - TeamSybase breakfast

Normally TeamSybase gets together a couple of times during a TechWave, perhaps a day before it starts for a team meeting and then at least once more during the event for a lunch or dinner.  This year we were only able to get together on the last day for breakfast, and even then some had to leave early (or not even make it) because of early flights.

None the less, we were able to accomplish the primary thing we wanted to accomplish during the gathering.  We presented Sue Dunnell with an award recognizing her efforts in product management for the PowerBuilder product.


Thursday, October 18, 2012

PowerBuilder Developer's Conference - Day 4 - Lunch and Clubhouse

After my second session I headed over to the exhibit hall to get some lunch.  On the way, I heard someone shout out "free beer" from the Clubhouse area.  I don't drink, but it still got my attention, so I wandered over, just in time to find Dave Fish and John Strano offering a demonstration of PowerBuilder 15 for all of the SAP TechEd attendees.


Wednesday, October 17, 2012

PowerBuilder Developer Roadmap

Sue Dunnell presented the PowerBuilder Developer Roadmap at the PowerBuilder Developer's Conference at SAP TechEd earlier this week.  It was similar to the roadmap that was presented earlier this month in the webcast.  As at the webcast, the enhancements that were planned were broken up into two categories: "Near Term" and "Future Innovation".  It appears those are standard categories for SAP product roadmaps, SAP doesn't give planned release dates or versions that enhancements will be included in their products.   I saw the similar categories (and lack of specifics on release dates or versions) at other SAP product roadmap sessions at TechEd.

P1020559 (Custom).JPG
In the case of PowerBuilder, the enhancements were also designed in color to represent those that were "Original Plan of Record" and those that were "Additions to the Plan" as a result of SAP's growing involvement in the product.  The one major difference here from the webcast earlier this month was the addition of "PowerBuilder Classic enhancements" as "Mid-Term" and "Original Plan of Record" enhancements.  I believe that indicates that their not being included in the webcast was simply an oversight.  In particular, John Strano later demoed some of the PowerBuilder Classic enhancements that we've been shown before in road shows, particularly docking windows.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

PowerBuilder Developer's Conference - Day 2 - PowerBuilder Roadmap

Real Time Data Platform - incorporation of a number of Sybase tools into an integrated product. You can stay with the individual products, or you can migrate to the new platform.


Friday, October 05, 2012

PowerBuilder Roadmap Webcast Recording

For those of you who were not able to make the recent PowerBuilder roadmap webcast, a recording of it is now available.  Since it was recorded using Adobe Acrobat Connect, it does require the Flash Player to view it.  So no viewing in the iPad....


 

 

Thursday, September 06, 2012

Webcast: How to Integrate PowerBuilder Applications with Third Party Applications Using Windows Services

Join us on Thursday, September 20th for the “How to Integrate PowerBuilder Applications with Third Party Applications Using Windows Services” webcast with Michael Kramer, development manager at Geokon. Michael has worked with PowerBuilder since 1993 and is a former PowerBuilder instructor and consultant. He is currently the technical lead at Geokon. Michael will be joined by PowerBuilder rock star John Strano.




More indications that HTML5 is not ready from prime time, at least for mobile devices

Why HTML5 is in trouble on the mobile front

For Leading Web Sites, Mobile Tide Turns Towards Full-Fledged Apps

 

Don't forget to register for the PowerBuilder Developer's Conference

The PowerBuilder Developers Conference (PBDC) will be co-located with SAP TechEd October 15-18. The sessions will provide an overview of what’s coming in the next major release of PowerBuilder, the roadmap, and everything from PowerBuilder and .NET to deploying to the Cloud. Plus, your PBDC pass will allow you access to the TechEd keynote, meals, and the special event on Thursday. Visit http://www.sybase.com/powerbuilderdevcon for current session abstracts,an updated agenda and the justification toolkit.

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Thursday, August 09, 2012

Beirut - Day 10

Up at 3 AM, bus comes at 4AM to take us to the airport. Flight out at 7 AM for Frankfurt, then Houston, then finally to LA.

Beirut - Day 9

Our last somewhat touristy day. We headed out in the morning for a beach near Sidon. Towards lunchtime we headed up to the local pastor's house in the mountains above there, next to the summer palace for the president. After lunch at the local pastor's house, we took a tour of the summer palace. The president was actually there when we arrived, but left shortly thereafter so we were able to see his offices. After that it was back up to the church in Beirut so we pack and have a late dinner.

Tuesday, August 07, 2012

Beirut - Day 8

We're back to a regular ministry schedule today. Breakfast at 8, team meeting at 9, then gather in the 'ready room' at 10 before we go out in the street to witness, pray for people, and pass out flyers for the service tonight.

Beirut - Day 7

Another tourist day. Today we visited the Cedars of Lebanon. Then we visited with an extended family that owns an apple orchard in the area and had lunch with them at their harvest house (the house the entire family stays at during harvest season). Pastor Kelly and the rest if the team gave the youth and adults some training in Bible study and prayed for their needs while Katie, Larry, Luis and myself did a Bible study / play time with the kids.

One the way back to the Life Center, a car flagged us down and asked us if we would take 2 American students back to Beirut. They had missed the last bus back, and would have to take a bus to Tripoli and from there take another bus back to Beirut if we couldn't take them back with us. Obviously we took them with us. Both were studying Arabic, one at the American University here in Beirut and the other at a university in Egypt. They were on a mini-vacation, first there at the Cedars (where they hiked to the top of the mountain there, apparently the highest point in the middle east) and then to Istanbul tomorrow. Part of the reason for the trip to Istanbul was to renew the travel visa to Beirut. It's nearly impossible to get a work visa in Beirut, so many Americans (including most of the staff of the English language newspapers) get travel visas and then have to leave the country and reapply for their travel visa every 2 months.

Monday, August 06, 2012

Beirut - Day 6

Today was more of a tourist day in order to give us and our translators a break. Instead of the regular schedule, we met early and headed out by bus. We stopped at a Wooden Bakery for breakfast, and then continued on to the Jeita Grotto.

Sunday, August 05, 2012

Beirut - Day 5

Today is Sunday, so the schedule is different. We had breakfast of course and our team meeting. Then we went to the main church service here at the Life Center. There are also a number of other church services that take place here throughout the day, including a Fillipio service and a Kenyan service. Two of our team members (Glenn and James) went to the Fillino service after the main service and shared during the service.

Saturday, August 04, 2012

Beirut - Day 4

Started with breakfast and team meeting again. Pastor Kelly is doing a leadership training this morning for the local church. In addition to local church leadership, they've invited members of their church as well as leaders from other local churches to attend.

Friday, August 03, 2012

Beirut - Day 3

As usual, we started the day with breakfast and a team meeting in which we shared our experience from the previous day, our 20/20, and did planning for the current day. The first thing we did is some set up for the Fun Fair. I was primarily set up the booths the games would be run in and hanging up the signs behind them.

Thursday, August 02, 2012

Beirut - Day 2

Morning was breakfast and team meeting again. We met with the youth group of the local church which was helping us set up for the Fun Fair. They're doing a medical clinic based theme, in which each game also tests a particular physical characteristic (hearing, sight, etc.) Clinic staff will be at the fair as well, so if kids have problems playing a particular game they can be evaluated to ensure they don't have health problems. After the meeting we started setting up for the fair itself.

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

Beirut - Day 1 (cont)

Breakfast was a number of cheeses, bread, olives, and cereal. A number of us ran across the street to a local vendor to pick up supplies. Traffic is interesting. Rather a free for all.

We met at about 9:30 for worship and sharing the results of our 20/20. At 10, the pastor of the Life Center gave us a background on Lebanon.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012

CAST Workbench Adds PowerBuilder Analyzer for First Integrated Client/Server Application Views

CAST announced that it has added 2 new functionalities to the latest version of its integrated suite of development tools, CAST Workbench. With its new PowerBuilder Analyzer feature, CAST Workbench offers easy-to-navigate views that seamlessly combine all Client/Server objects and their relationships for application-wide visibility and understanding. The CAST Reference Finder feature extends CAST Workbench's traditional search and change impact analysis functions to span both the client and server sides of the application, making it easy to work on the application in its entirety.

Beirut - Day 1

The tweet I sent from the airport last night to indicate we arrived apparently never got sent. In any event, we arrived safe and sound.

The folks from the New Life church met us at the airport with a bus and took us to the center. Accomidations are similar to Haiti, room each for men and women with bunk beds. One difference is that we actually have A/C in the room. We're also on regular mattresses rather than air bags. Shower and toilet facilities are also a bit nicer than Haiti. The center provided us with a dinner of salad, pizza and french fries.

We got to experience a bit of what the news has been talking about lately with regard to power problems. The center is hooked up to a neighboor backup generator and then has a backup generator of it's own, but we still experienced a number of power outages throughout the night.

This morning we're all doing our 20/20 and then meeting for breakfast. There will be an orientation after that, and then we'll do a walkthrough of the neighborhood.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

For HTML5, some good news, some bad news

The good news, looks like it's getting some corporate sponsorship:

HTML5 Standardization Gains Sponsorship

Not sure if this one is good or bad.  The snapshot version of the HTML5 standard now has four editors.  Guess it all depends on how well they work together.

W3C names not one, but four HTML5 editors

And for the bad news, some indication that HTML5 isn't working out just yet, and native apps are still the way to go, at least for mobile devices:

HTML5 is overhyped, no threat to native iOS and Android apps

iQU's Fraser MacInnes on why web-based mobile games are faltering

 

Friday, July 27, 2012

Registration is open for the PowerBuilder Developers Conference

The PowerBuilder Developer's Conference will be held at the Venetian hotel in Las Vegas concurrently with SAP TechEd from October 15-19, 2012. The week will be packed full of training, networking opportunities, and fun! And, like last year, your badge will get you access to the SAP TechEd keynote events, exhibit hall, and special event night. And, you will not only have access to SAP’s DemoJam and InnoJam events, but you can participate as well! Last year, Ronnie Po won 2nd place at DemoJam, a fantastic showing for our first SAP event ever! Who knows, maybe your application will be the next winner!

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn how PowerBuilder developers from around the globe have extended applications to support .NET, incorporated Web Services, deployed their applications to the Cloud, created mobile solutions, and so much more. Get the first sneak peek at Appeon’s solution for developing PowerBuilder applications that deploy to iOS devices. And, hear what’s coming in PowerBuilder 15 and beyond directly from engineering and evangelism.

You can even get a jump start on the week by signing up for a brand new, 2-day, pre-conference hands-on workshop taught by PowerBuilder expert, TeamSybase member, and PowerBuilder MVP Yakov Werde. In this course, you’ll learn how to design and deploy a .NET 4.0 SOA Application with WCF and PowerBuilder 12.5 – using both Classic and .NET versions of PowerBuilder.

Register here.

Friday, July 20, 2012

Another article on the state of HTML5

The Pain of HTML5.   Great post on "places where HTML5 currently falls short that have hurt us in the last month."

http://blog.caplin.com/2012/07/16/the-pain-of-html5/

Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV Episodes

Modernize the look of your PowerBuilder Applications - Christophe Dufourmantelle
July 17th 2012 at 11:00 AM EDT (New York) - 17h00 CEST (Paris)

Buenas practicas para el manejo de excepciones y errores en PowerBuilder (en español) - Oscar Tobar
Jueves 05 de julio a las 10:00 AM hora de la Cuidad de México - 17h00 Hora de Madrid

Vista previa de Appeon Mobile - La primera solución móvil para la comunidad PowerBuilder (en español) - Carmina Garcia
Martes 28 de agosto a las 10:00 AM hora de la Cuidad de México - 17h00 Hora de Madrid

HTML5 is not a panacea...

"[T]his does not mean the technology is ready for every implementation and, in particular, issues around security, synchronicity and the fact that it is an evolving standard can make it an unsuitable option for enterprises, said Akka."

http://features.techworld.com/mobile-wireless/3367254/html5-is-not-panacea-magic-software/

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Facebook and HTML5

Back in November of 2011, I made a comment that:
I'm a late and reluctant convert to the use of HTML5 to generate web applications. I still believe it's an immature technology. I imagine the real test will come when Facebook releases their new HTML5-based interface (not released at the time of this writing). If there are holes in HTML5 capabilities, the folks at Facebook are going to run into them trying to support a wide variety of devices from a single code base and implementing a less than trivial interface.

Well, the jury is in, and there are more indication that Facebook is abandoning it's HTML5 application and reverting back to native applications for mobile devices (at least for iOS).

Apple Insider
Inside Facebook
MobileBurn
NY Times
iMediaMonkey
MacWorld
AppAdvice
MacRumors

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

How long before HTML5 is ready for prime time for Line of Business (LOB) applications?

Here's a take on the future of HTML5 from a leader in the gaming community:

"It's very early days for HTML5. If you think about the order of it maturing, it's first going to mature for periodicals, magazines, newspaper-type applications. The Financial Times already moved there and the NYT already moved there.  A year or two beyond that you'll start to see other simple apps like the Bloomberg financial apps, weather apps, that kind of stuff all makes sense for HTML5. Beyond that, another year or two down the line, you're going to have simple casual games that are going make sense to be programmed in HTML5.  Glu's approach is to play at the exact other side of the spectrum here. We build apps that require 100-200-300 megabyte downloadable clients. Things like 3D FPS. For our style of games, you're five years away if not 10 years away from being able to deliver a comparable bandwidth and hardware experience using an app model vs. an HTML5 model. We choose to partner and build a style of games that take advantage of the latest hardware."

http://www.fiercemobilecontent.com/story/glu-mobiles-ceo-spills-why-html5-isnt-future/2012-06-11

I'd argue that line of business applications require UI capabilities somewhere between casual games and the kinds of games that Glu does.  So we may be looking at anywhere from 2 to 10 years.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

PowerBuilder Developers Conference announced, including call for papers

The PowerBuilder Developers Conference! The conference will be held October 15-19, 2012 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, concurrently with SAP TechEd.

Interesting take on measuring the popularity of programming languages

Particularly if you have some issues with the method that TIOBE uses.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2012/06/5-ways-to-tell-which-programming-lanugages-are-most-popular.php

Not sure they address the problem as far as PowerBuilder is concerned though.  For example, the first method measures data from StackOverlow and GitHub.  The first makes sense.  I doubt there are many if any PowerBuilder projects on GitHub though, which doesn't mean the language isn't used, it just means it isn't used with GitHub.

Similar issues with one of the sources that one of the commenters on the article makes.  They recommend looking at data from itjobswatch.co.uk, at least as far as popularity within the UK.

http://www.itjobswatch.co.uk/default.aspx?page=3&sortby=0&orderby=0&q=&id=900&lid=2618

You won't see PowerBuilder on the list, but if you search for PowerBuilder separately you'll get hits.  Apparently the site doesn't categorize PowerBuilder as a language.  That's actually fair, it's a tool, not a language.  But it demonstrates the problem using most of these statistics to try to determine where PowerBuilder fits in.

 

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Haiti 2012

One of the things is was great to see was the amount of progress that has been accomplished since I was in Haiti last June.

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Sybase TechWave content split between SAP TechEd and another event yet to be announced.

The Database and Mobility portions of TechWave are being incorporated into SAP TechEd which will be held October 15-19 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, NV.

The Application Development Tools portions of TechWave will be held in a separate event at the same time and general location.  To ensure you are informed of updates specific for the Application Development Tools event, you can register your interest at http://response.sybase.com/forms/2012TechEdAppDevToolsEvent.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Thursday, March 08, 2012

March San Diego Flex User Group Meeting

April meeting will be a dry run through of a Adobe Max presentation showing an app developed and deployed on 5 or 6 different mobile devices

This meeting was a presentation by Greg Wilson of Adobe and Jeff Tapper of Spoon.  It was the type of information that should have been originally presented when Flex was released to open source four months ago.

Friday, February 17, 2012

Webcast: “McKesson’s Paragon + PowerBuilder = One Award Winning Application Suite, Six Years in a Row!”

Date: Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Time: 12:00 - 1:00 PM ET (9:00 - 10:00 AM PT)

McKesson’s PowerBuilder Development Manager, Robert Sisk will discuss Paragon. McKesson’s Paragon application is an industry-leading Hospital Information System (HIS)  rated the #1 community HIS technology by KLAS (described as the Consumer Reports for healthcare IT products)  for SIX years in a row!   By definition, "paragon" is a model of excellence or perfection of a kind, a peerless example.  It’s not by coincidence that McKesson’s Paragon has been so successful, starting with PowerBuilder.

Webcast: Evolving Real PowerBuilder Applications: Tales from the Consulting Files



Date: Thursday, March 29, 2012
Time: 1:00 - 2:00 PM ET (10:00 - 11:00 AM PT)




IDC Analyst Al Hilwa, Research Program Director for Application Development and storied PowerBuilder consultant Don Clayton of InterTech Consulting, Inc. team up for this exciting webcast.   Al lead the conversation and short presentation focusing on the topic of evolving trends and the changing landscape in Application Development. Al and Don blended real-life stories with lessons, best practices and alternative approaches that you can use today and more that will become possible as Sybase moves along its PowerBuilder roadmap.



Thursday, January 26, 2012

Upcoming PowerBuilder.TV Episodes

How to migrate your PowerBuilder Applications?  - Bassam Tannouri
February 9th at 11am EST (New York) / 17h00 CET (Paris)

 

PowerBuilder 12.5.1 - A Maintenance Release and a Whole Lot More!  - Dave Fish
Thursday February 23rd at 11am EST (New York) / 17h00 CET (Paris) 

Cómo hacer aplicaciones multitarea con PowerBuilderOscar Tobar (Presented in Spanish)
Thursday March 8th at 09hrs (Ciudad de Mexico) / 16hrs CET (Madrid)

Introduction to Customization Studio 2012Christophe Dufourmantelle
Thursday March 22nd 2012 at 12:00 PM EST (New York) - 17h00 CET (Paris)

Thursday, January 19, 2012

TechWave 2012 announced

Not sure when the announcement was made, I just happened to hit the TechWave web site and notice it. As was done for TechWave 2011, TechWave 2012 will be colocated with SAP TechEd at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada. This year the conference will be held October 15th to 19th (a month later than last year's). Mark your calendars now and keep looking for the call for papers.

http://www.sybase.com/techwave