Sybase SA has released version 8 of PowerBuilder, an integrated application development environment for e-business and client/server solutions. It includes features that speed up the development of n-tier, Web and client/server enterprise applications.
PowerBuilder 8 also has several key capabilities that allow developers to build websites and write Web applications within the PowerBuilder Integrated Development Environment (IDE). It provides tight integration with Sybase EAServer - a Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application server. Developers can build and deploy PowerBuilder components to EAServer from within the PowerBuilder IDE.
"PowerBuilder is now in its tenth year," says Julie Tomlinson, Sybase SA marketing manager. "This underscores the fact that it is a proven tool for object-oriented, component-based rapid application development (RAD). We have now integrated tighter Web and n-tier development capabilities into this release so customers can build applications for next-generation environments and complete projects on time and within budget." According to a recent International Data Corporation (IDC) survey of IS managers, their preferred tools for developing their most recent mission critical applications were fourth-generation language (4GL) RAD tools such as PowerBuilder. The addition of 4GL Web functionality into PowerBuilder 8 will further simplify the process of building transactional Web-based applications. The flexibility of the types of application development that PowerBuilder 8 supports results in the speedy and cost-effective creation of applications. Organisations can leverage their existing PowerBuilder infrastructure - applications, developer skills, training, and support - in combination with the new capabilities of the version 8 release to maximise their return on investment and reduce capital and operational expenditures. New PowerBuilder 8 capabilities include:
. Web targets - These manage all the elements required to build a web site such as HTML files, scripts, images, and downloaded components, as well as settings for build options, database connections, and deployment.
. 4GL web development - With Web target object model extensions, this generates template code for dynamic Web pages and handles the complexities of data transfer, HTML generation, and JavaScript generation for server scripts.
. Web target wizards - These make it easy to create websites, 4GL Web pages with declarative server-side data bindings, Web DataWindow pages, frame set pages, cascading style sheets and more.
. EAServer integration - The EAServer component wizard can create components that implement existing EAServer interfaces.
. PowerBuilder client applications and components can act as clients to Enterprise JavaBeans components on EAServer.
. Productivity - PowerBuilder 8 includes over 50 productivity enhancements that provide end-users with capabilities to develop their products more quickly than ever before.
. System Tree - Users can open, build, and deploy objects, and use drag-and-drop programming directly from this display of the contents of the workspace.
. Output window - This displays results from a variety of operations and enables direct action on error messages.
. Clip window - This stores frequently used PowerScript or HTML code segments.
. Exception handling - errors in PowerBuilder applications and components are handled using Java-style exceptions.
. Source editor - edit the source of PowerScript objects directly.
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