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Object-Orientation Implementation:
Supports inheritance, encapsulation and polymorphism,
with the ability to overload methods at the same object
without using inheritance for the same. You need to
create all the classes using GUI painters, and
PowerBuilder does all the dog work, behind the scenes. |
|
SQL Support: PowerBuilder
supports SQL and Stored Procedures using DataWindow and
embedded/dynamic SQL and remote procedure calls. |
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DataWindow: DataWindow control
is the heart of PowerBuilder and is used to display data
in a wide variety of presentation styles --Freeform,
Tabular, Grid, Labels, Group, N-up, RichText edit, Graph,
Crosstab, OLE 2.0 and Composite -- by executing SELECT
statements or Stored Procedures in the database. They can
also be populated programmatically. DataWindow
automatically updates the datasource just by writing a
few lines of PowerScript code. |
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Embedded/Dynamic SQL:
PowerBuilder supports both embedded and dynamic SQL,
including scrollable cursors and Stored Procedure
execution. |
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Remote Procedure Calls: It
also supports calling Stored Procedures and procedures
using function-calling notation (programmers in the
industry call this 'remote procedure calls' even though
the actual meaning of 'remote procedure call' is differs
from this). |
|
Database Connectivity:
Database connectivity is its strong point. |
|
ODBC Drivers: Supports all
popular databases --Sybase/Microsoft SQL Server,
Informix, Oracle, and DB2-- using ODBC 3.0 drivers. |
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Native Database Drivers:
Provides native database drivers for Oracle 8.0, Informix
6.2, Sybase SQL Server 11.1 and Sybase Adaptive Server
Enterprise 11.5. |
|
Dynamic Data Exchange:
PowerBuilder supports DDE at window object level.
PowerBuilder application can act as a DDE client or DDE
server or both. |
|
OLE 2.0 Support: PowerBuilder
supports OLE 2.0 including OLE 2.0 automation from
version 4.0 onwards.
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OLE 2.0 Window Control:
Acts as an OLE 2.0 container and OCX Controls can
also be inserted. |
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OLE 2.0 - DataWindow:
|
DataWindow Presentation
Style: Data can be displayed
in any of the OLE 2.0 server's format. |
|
OCX Control:
OCX control can be inserted in DataWindow
like any other object. |
|
OLE
2.0 Automation: This feature
was introduced in version 4.0.
PowerBuilder can act as an OLE 2.0
client, server or both. V6.0 supports
DCOM --Distributed Component Object
Model-- also. |
|
|
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MAPI Support: PowerBuilder
supports MS-Windows messaging standard MAPI --Messaging
API. |
|
Web
Support: DataWindow can be saved as HTML table
and form with only one line of code. PowerBuilder
applications can be deployed on the web in different
ways:
|
DataWindow Plug-in:
Used basically to display DataWindow reports on
the web. |
|
Window Plug-in: Used
to deploy PowerBuilder applications on the web.
Using 'Context' object --gives access to the
browser's exposed services-- you can make use of
browser's services -- an example would be
displaying an URL from other site. Supports
secure mode also. |
|
Window ActiveX Control:
Functionality similar to Window Plug-in --Plug-in
is Netscape's way of running other applications
in its browser, and 'ActiveX' is Microsoft's way.
Supports secure mode also. |
|
Web.PB Class Library:
Used to generate HTML dynamically at the web
server level. |
|
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Distributed Objects: From
version 5.0, PowerBuilder applications can be deployed as
client app or application server or both. Client app and
Server applications talk using TCP/IP and other popular
protocols. Supports 'Asynchronous' --Fire-and-Forget
communication and server push also. |
|
Unicode Support: V6.0 supports
unicode. In case you do not know what unicode is, each
ASCII character takes 8 bits which limits the usage of
Asian languages such as Japaneese, Hindi, etc.. in
computer applications since characters in those language
can't fit in 8 bits. Using unicode in which each
character takes 16 bits, you can develop applications for
non-English languages also. Unicode is supported by
MS-Windows 95/NT. |
|
Built-in Support for Arabic, Hebrew
Languages: These languages use right-to-left
writing style. |
|
Translation Assistant: This
tool helps you in deploying PowerBuilder application in
multiple languages with minimum efforts. |
|
Support for Pen Computing:
Class library for Pen Computing can be used on pen based
Windows systems, to implement pen computing interface in
PowerBuilder applications. |
|
Lotus Notes Support: Powersoft
ships a class library for Lotus Notes, using which you
can display information from Lotus Notes in PowerBuilder
and also update changes back into Lotus Notes. |
|
Support for Operating Functions:
You can use operating system functions, by declaring them
as external functions, with an exception of callback
functions. |
|
NetWare Support: A class
library is available to call Novel NetWare functions. |
|
Third-Party Vendor Applications:
Third party controls can be used in PowerBuilder, either
as OCX controls or as external user object. |
|
Multi Platform support:
Available for MS Windows 95, NT, 3.x (deployment only
from v6.0 onwards), Macintosh, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX,
HP-UX. |
|
Support for Transaction Servers:
Supports Sybase Jaguar CTS and Microsoft Transaction
Server (basic support only as of this writing). |
|
Application Profiler and Tracing:
APIs are available to log all tracing information and
analysis. |
|
PowerBuilder Foundation Class Library:
Available since version 5.0. (Learn about this in detail
in the PFC session). |
|
Synchronizer: Allows you to
make sure that the user always uses the latest files.
Synchronization can be done on the web also. |
|
ORCA: Allows you to access
PowerBuilder library --a file that stores PowerBuilder
objects-- functions such as copy, rename, delete, move,
export, import, compile, check-in/out PowerBuilder
objects, create executables, look into inheritance
hierarchy and so on, from outside programs, typically a C
program. |
|
C++ Class Builder: Allows
creating C++ classes from within PowerBuilder and uses
those classes in PowerBuilder. |
|
Version Control Interfaces:
Supports popular version control products including
Object Cycle --a RDBMS based version control software
from PowerSoft and Microsoft Common Source Code Control
Interface Specification. |
