How you will proceed

The following table describes what you will do in each of the tutorial lessons.

Lesson

What you will do

1

Start PowerBuilder; begin familiarizing yourself with the development environment; use the Workspace wizard and the Template Application wizard to create an Application object, windows, and menus in a PowerBuilder workspace and target.

2

Explore the PowerBuilder environment and customize the workspace.

3

Create a login window to allow the user to enter database connection parameters (user ID and password).

4

Connect to the database using the Transaction object and user-entry parameters; see how database profiles are defined in the PowerBuilder environment.

5

Change the base sheet window by adding master and detail DataWindow controls; add scripts to allow users to retrieve data and perform insert, update, and delete operations against the database.

6

Modify the frame menu and create a new sheet menu for the application.

7-8

Build the DataWindow objects that retrieve customer and product information, then add them to the Customer and Product windows.

9

Run the tutorial application in debug mode; see how to set breakpoints in scripts, step through the code, and display the contents of variables.

10

Create a new window to test exception handling in PowerBuilder.

11

Create an executable file that you can use to run the application outside the PowerBuilder development environment.


How long it will take

You can do all the tutorials in about six hours, or you can stop after any lesson and continue at another time.

If you are interrupted

You can save your work and exit PowerBuilder at any time. When you are ready to continue, you can open the tutorial workspace and continue where you left off.

What you will learn

This tutorial will not make you an expert in PowerBuilder. Only experience building real-world applications can do that. It will give you hands-on experience, though, and provide a foundation for continued growth.

Client/server applications

You will learn basic PowerBuilder techniques and concepts, including those listed in the following table:

How to use the

To

Application painter

Define an Application object and application-level scripts

Window painter

Create SingleLineEdit controls, StaticText controls, CommandButton controls, DataWindow controls, window-level scripts, and control-level scripts

DataWindow painter

Define selection and display options

Menu painter

Define menus, menu items, accelerators, and shortcut keys

Layout view

Design how the windows, menus, and DataWindows will look when you run the application

Script view

Define scripts for applications, windows, window controls, and menus

Debugger

Identify logic errors that may cause problems when you run the application

Project painter

Create an executable version of an application