Calling .Net Assemblies from PowerBuilder Classic Win32 via PowerShell

Recently someone asked me how they could get the output from PBDOM used from a PowerBuilder Classic Win32 application formatted with white space as PBDOM doesn't include it.  I gave them a number of options, particularlyMSXML through OLE Automation or using a .Net class like XmlTextWriter.  Normally if you were going to try to access a .Net assembly from a PowerBuilder Classic Win32 application, you would do it via a COM Callable Wrapper.  However, for something this simple I thought there had to be a more lightweight way to accomplish it.  One particular lighterweight way that occurred to be would be to have the application launch a Windows PowerShell script that would then use the .Net class in question.  We're going to look at an example of how that's done.

Swiss PowerBuilder User Group Meeting - May 5, 2014

The meeting was held as SAP's offices in Regensdorf, a suburb of Zurich.

The meeting started with Sue Dunnell and Dave Fish discussing the status of PowerBuilder, and in particular the beta.

• 235 people signed up for beta.  Small for PB, but big for SAP
• Other products are looking to follow same process, also complaining about S-user requirement

After that, Dave Fish demonstrated the following features in the beta version of PowerBuilder 15

• OData
• 64 bit support (Native)
• Dockable Windows
• HTML5 DataWindow

That was followed by my presentation on using visual controls (PB.Net in VS.Net, VS.Net in PB Classic).  We then broke for lunch.  After lunch, Jan Lemmens of SAP then gave an overview of application development with HANA.  After that, Dave Fish presenting SAPUI5 and OpenUI5.  Finally, Dave Fish demonstrated Android support in Appeon.

Communication with a smart card from PowerBuilder

We're going to look at using the Smart Card SDK provided in more recent versions of Windows (XP and later).  Earlier versions of Windows had an ActiveX installed called CAPICOM which could be accessed from PowerBuilder through OLE Automation, but that control was removed as of Windows Vista because of security issues.

We're going to look at a number of operations:

• Communication with the card
• Validating the user's PIN
• Reading the certificate Subject Name
• Reading other certificate data

A collection of PowerBuilder resources

• All of my PowerBuilder samples, including the source code for the demos I've done at various conferences are available in the PowerBuilder Samples folder on my Google Drive: http://goo.gl/VXouQ
• The PowerBuilder Developer's Journal may have gone away, but I'm going a free "magazine" on FlipBoard. It's basically just collection of articles from all over the internet on PowerBuilder: http://goo.gl/Mrd3Ql
• I've done a number of videos for the SAP Database and Technology Academy. The PowerBuilder related videos, including mine, are available at: http://goo.gl/53pe7a 
• I've done a number of webinars for PowerBuilder.TV. The archives of the webinars related to PowerBuilder, including mine, are available at: http://goo.gl/IUHN1N
• Also, don't forget the PowerBuilder Developer Center, where a bunch of us hang out to answer questions, write blogs and documents: http://goo.gl/DtaS58 
• You might also want to check out the PowerBuilder Central site. It's an attempt to collect references to different resources like this and make the available in a central location: http://goo.gl/WVyNo7 
• If you're looking for PowerBuilder training, be sure to check out Yakov Werde's training offerings (as well as his consulting services) at: elearnitonline.com

ISUG Tech Conference 2014 Report

Monday

Location

It's good not to be in Las Vegas.  The location in Atlanta is rather convenient.  You can take a MARTA train straight from the airport to a shopping mall close to the hotel and then take a covered walkway from the mall to the hotel.  The one issue though is that things are not well marked.  It seems that the people responsible for signage may be looking at it from the perspective of people that already know the area. I found it quite hard to find my way around when I first arrived.

How to use .Net visual controls in PowerBuilder Classic

Using non-visual .Net classes in PowerBuilder Classic is somewhat straightforward.  Provided the assembly (and the classes and methods within it) have been marked as COM Visible, you can run REGASM on them to create OLE registry entries and then use the class through OLE Automation.  I have a video on the SAP D&T Academy that demonstrates the process.

If you think folks that have PowerBuilder apps have trouble finding developers...

Imagine what it's like for people still running VB6 apps.  A couple of things actually make it worse for them:

1.  VB6 is no longer available for retail purchase.  The only way to get access to it now is with a MSDN subscription.  That doesn't exactly make it attractive to new developers.

2.  VB6 was never updated for compliance with operating systems later than XP.  As XP is being desupported, it becomes increasingly difficult to support VB6 apps on more recent operating systems.

For more info, see:  VB6: The Looming Crisis

I also found this interesting.  There was a time even when PowerBuilder was at it's peak when the number of VB6 job offerings dwarfed the PowerBuilder offerings.  Here's some more recent data.

PowerBuilder, VB6 Job Trends

Powerbuilder jobs - Vb6 jobs

And then there's this.  A company that offers training in "legacy technologies" (including PowerBuilder) so that developers who are having trouble finding a job or are not getting paid what they want can find jobs easier and for higher pay.