Table of Contents

Introduction to PBNI

About 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