Home Appeon Web | Appeon Mobile | Appeon PowerBuilder Appeon Online Help Center

PowerBuilder Native Interface Programmers Guide and Reference

Appeon PowerBuilder® 2019

FOR WINDOWS

DOCUMENT ID: DC37794-01-1900-01

LAST REVISED: June 05, 2019

Copyright © 2019 Appeon. All rights reserved.

This publication pertains to Appeon software and to any subsequent release until otherwise indicated in new editions or technical notes. Information in this document is subject to change without notice. The software described herein is furnished under a license agreement, and it may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of that agreement.

Upgrades are provided only at regularly scheduled software release dates. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or translated in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, manual, optical, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Appeon Inc.

Appeon and other Appeon products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Appeon Inc.

SAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP and SAP affiliate company.

Java and all Java-based marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries.

Unicode and the Unicode Logo are registered trademarks of Unicode, Inc.

All other company and product names mentioned may be trademarks of the respective companies with which they are associated.

Use, duplication, or disclosure by the government is subject to the restrictions set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of DFARS 52.227-7013 for the DOD and as set forth in FAR 52.227-19(a)-(d) for civilian agencies.

Appeon Inc., 1/F, Shell Industrial Building, 12 Lee Chung Street, Chai Wan District, Hong Kong

Table of Contents

Programmers Guide

Introduction to PBNI

Understanding PowerBuilder extensions
Embedding the PBVM in a C++ application

The elements of PBNI

The PBNI SDK

Comparing PBNI and JNI

Building PowerBuilder Extensions

Nonvisual extension example

Building the pbadd PowerBuilder extension
Using the extension in PowerBuilder

Creating a PowerBuilder extension

Step 1: Decide on a feature to implement
Step 2: Define the classes and functions in the extension
Step 3: Declare native classes and global functions
Step 4: Implement native classes and global functions
Step 5: Export methods to create class instances
Step 6: Build a PBX

Adding an extension to a PowerBuilder target

Using the extension

Creating and using a visual extension

Step 1: Decide on a feature to implement
Step 2: Define the classes and functions in the extension
Step 3: Declare visual classes and global functions
Step 4: Implement native classes
Step 5: Export methods to create class instances
Step 6: Build and use a PBX
Step 7: Use the visual extension in an application

Creating visual class instances

Event processing in visual extensions

Using an event name with return type and arguments
Using an event name with a PowerBuilder event ID
Processing events sent to the parent of the window

Calling PowerScript from an extension

Example: Calling PowerBuilder functions

Exception handling and debugging

Creating Marshaler Extensions

About marshaler extensions

Developing the PowerBuilder extension

Step 1: Describe the extension
Step 2: Implement the creator class
Step 3: Implement the marshaler class

Generating proxies for Java classes

Calling the Java class from PowerBuilder

Exchanging Data with PowerBuilder

About exchanging data with PowerBuilder

Passing values between extensions and the PBVM

PBCallInfo structure
IPB_Arguments interface
IPB_Value interface

Using the IPB_Session interface

Saving data from IPB_Value to a local variable

Using variables throughout a session

Handling enumerated types

Calling PowerBuilder from C++

About calling PowerScript from C++ applications

Calling PowerBuilder objects from C++

Creating a PowerBuilder object to be called from C++
Getting the signature of a function
Creating the C++ application
Running the C++ application

Accessing result sets

Processing PowerBuilder messages in C++

Examples

More PBNI possibilities

PBNI Types and Return Values

PowerBuilder to PBNI datatype mappings
Types for access to PowerBuilder data
PBNI enumerated types
Error return values

PBNI Interfaces, Structures, and Methods

Header file contents

Class and interface summary

IPB_Arguments interface

GetAt
GetCount

IPB_ResultSetAccessor interface

AddRef
GetColumnCount
GetColumnMetaData
GetItemData
GetRowCount
Release

IPB_RSItemData interface

SetData
SetNull

IPB_Session interface

IPB_Value interface

Get<type>
GetClass
GetType
IsArray
IsByRef
IsEnum
IsNull
IsObject
Set<type>
SetToNull

IPB_VM interface

CreateSession
RunApplication

IPBX_Marshaler interface

Destroy
GetModuleHandle
InvokeRemoteMethod

IPBX_NonVisualObject interface

IPBX_UserObject interface

Destroy
Invoke

IPBX_VisualObject interface

CreateControl
GetEventID
GetWindowClassName

PBArrayInfo structure

PBCallInfo structure

PB_DateData structure

PB_DateTimeData structure

PB_TimeData structure

PBX_DrawItemStruct structure

PBArrayAccessor template class

GetAt
IsNull
SetAt
SetToNull

PBBoundedArrayCreator template class

GetArray
SetAt

PBBoundedObjectArrayCreator class

GetArray
SetAt

PBObjectArrayAccessor class

GetAt
SetAt

PBUnboundedArrayCreator template class

GetArray
SetAt

PBUnboundedObjectArrayCreator class

GetArray
SetAt

Exported methods

PBX_CreateNonVisualObject
PBX_CreateVisualObject
PBX_DrawVisualObject
PBX_GetDescription
PBX_InvokeGlobalFunction
PBX_Notify

Method exported by PowerBuilder VM

PB_GetVM

PBNI Tool Reference

pbsig190
pbx2pbd190

APPENDIX A Using the Visual Studio Wizards

Where the wizards are installed

Generating a PBNI project
Setting project options
Building and using the PBX

		Next
		Programmers Guide