PowerServer Web

PowerServer Web extends the capabilities of PowerBuilder so that a PowerBuilder application can be deployed to the Web. The deployment process produces a true n-Tier Web application with a J2EE-based or .NET-based back-end and an HTML UI front-end. The source PowerBuilder application that will be deployed to the Web may be an existing 2-tier application or a new 3-tier Web application in PowerBuilder. A 3-tier Web application can be constructed quickly and easily, using only your PowerBuilder skills. Either way, PowerServer Web is the fastest way to: 1) convert PowerBuilder applications into bona fide Web applications, and 2) convert PowerBuilder developers into highly productive Web application developers.

PowerServer Web is composed of a developer tool and a set of runtime server components: PowerServer Toolkit, PowerServer (which includes AEM), PowerServer Web Component, and PowerServer Help:

  • PowerServer Toolkit. An extension to PowerBuilder that enables the Web application generation, maintenance, and upgrades within the PowerBuilder IDE.

  • PowerServer for J2EE Server. Composed of J2EE and PowerBuilder server components that provide runtime services for the deployed Web application such as data connectivity, complete DataWindows support, transaction management, printing, and security.

  • PowerServer for .NET. Composed of Microsoft .NET components that provide runtime services for the deployed Web application such as data connectivity, complete DataWindows support, transaction management, printing, and security.

    PowerServer also includes AEM, which is essentially the user interface for PowerServer. This UI is implemented as a JSP Web application enabling the system administrator to manage deployed Web applications and PowerServer over the Internet, an intranet or an extranet.

  • PowerServer Web Component. A series of JavaScript-based Web components generating PowerBuilder-style GUI in standard Web browsers.

  • PowerServer Help. Provides easy access to all user documents. It saves time and conveniently places the help information, such as, the Appeon supported features, at your fingertips.

PowerServer Web provides several additional tools (included in the installation package) to aid you in deploying existing PowerBuilder applications to the Web:

  • Appeon Workarounds PBL. Provides you several Appeon workaround functions that can help work around the unsupported features, such as DataWindow GetFullState, SetFullState, GetChanges and SetChanges functions. Refer to Appeon Workarounds PBL Reference in Workarounds & APIs Guide for the functions provided in Appeon Workarounds PBL.

  • Appeon Sales Application Demo. Familiarize yourself with the PowerServer Toolkit in PowerBuilder and with the deployment process by converting the Sales Application Demo to the Web.

  • Appeon Code Examples and Appeon ACF Demo. Explore examples of some of the rich PowerBuilder and PFC functionalities that PowerServer Web can support on the Web. Appeon Code Examples also serves as a reference for how to best implement these supported PowerBuilder features. An application that is compliant with Appeon-supported features can be deployed to the Web in a few minutes with the click of a button.