Berndt Hamboeck

The DropDownDataWindow (DDDW) edit style is one of PowerBuilder's outstanding features. Yes, I know there are a lot of new and exciting capabilities in the upcoming release of PowerBuilder, but in this article I'll try to solve some of the current problems with the existing features that are popping up in nearly every project I've seen. Here I'll focus on DropDownDataWindows, including: How to get started with DDDWs Filtering DDDWs without losing the display value in other rows Catching the collapsing of a DDDW Trapping the cursor keys in a DDDW Autocomplete DDDW values Getting Started The basics are well covered in the PowerBuilder User's Manual, but if you still have problems defining them look at Figure 1. Click on the column you want and its edit style (yes, click on edit on the properties) as DDDW (choose DropDownDW as Style Type). Next, choose your DataWindow, ... (more)

'NetStart' your PowerBuilder Application

One of the biggest problems in an enterprise is deploying the application. Usually you have to deliver a new release of your application to several hundred workstations. This may be a time-consuming and very cost-intensive task. Think of rolling out the newest and coolest version of the order application of your enterprise: this superior version has so many new functionalities that your users will love it. When we think about rolling out a new version, we must keep a few things in mind: The cool new version has to be packed for distribution. Database conversion scripts have to ... (more)

Mobile and Wireless Design Essentials

It won't be long until a new product developed by Sybase hits the stores. Yes, I'm talking about Pocket PowerBuilder. For any professional (PowerBuilder) software developer, this should be reason enough to look behind the scenes of mobile and wireless development. Fortunately for us there's a book on the market that covers everything we need to know. This book, Mobile and Wireless Design Essentials, is written by Martyn Mallick. Martyn is a senior software engineer in product management and a wireless solutions evangelist for iAnywhere Solutions, a subsidiary of Sybase, Inc. He'... (more)

Working with the Enterprise Portal

An enterprise portal is the converged "hub" of multiple, complementary information management solutions, including document and content management, information search and retrieval, knowledge management, team collaboration, workflow, and business intelligence. In this article, we describe what an enterprise portal is and give you a brief overview of Sybase Enterprise Portal. Then we take a closer look at the portal and go over some of the installation requirements and steps for the Information Edition of the portal. We also delve into how to use a portal and build components (ca... (more)

SQL Anywhere Studio 9 Developer's Guide

As a PowerBuilder developer I'm sure you have already used SQL Anywhere a few times, but did you know that SQL Anywhere owns over 70% of the mobile database market? There are several good reasons for this big market share; it's easy to use, easy to administer, and doesn't take up much space, but SQL Anywhere isn't just for mobile and embedded databases; it's got the features and the flexibility to work as a network server with hundreds of active users pounding away on a single database. And it's got a solid foundation and a long history from its roots with Watcom in the 1980s th... (more)