Building a client/server application with commands
Instead of building the Application project from the
PowerBuilder IDE, you can also build the project using the PBAutoBuild220.exe tool.
PBAutoBuild220.exe is a
standalone tool that can compile and deploy Application projects using
DOS commands on Windows. It can automate the entire build and deploy
process without requiring PowerBuilder IDE installed or any
PowerBuilder license running; it is free for use! But it requires
PowerBuilder Runtime to run, so it must be installed to a machine
where PowerBuilder Runtime will also be installed. To install
PBAutoBuild220.exe, run the PowerBuilder Installer and select PowerBuilder Utilities in the Programs tab.
For step-by-step guidance, refer to Tutorial:
Building your client/server application with commands. The
PBAutoBuild220 command can also
integrate with Jenkins to automate the
build process for Application projects. Refer to the Jenkins user
documentations for how to use Jenkins.
To build the Application project with commands:
-
Export the configurations of the Application project to the
JSON file.-
Click the Export Build
File button (
) in the toolbar if the Application
project painter opens, or right click the Application project
object (or target or workspace) and then select Export Build File. -
In the Export Build
File dialog box, specify where to save the exported
file and how to overwrite the settings if the file already
exists. Click Export.If you right click the workspace and then select
Export Build File, you can
select one or more targets to export the build file for, and
then select one or more project types to export if there are
more than one type of project objects in the selected
target(s). If you select more than one project type, the
corresponding project objects will be exported to the build
file > “Projects” > [project object name]. If the
selected targets contain project objects with the same name,
only the object listed last will be added to the build
file.Select “Export the Git/SVN SourceControl settings (if
exists) from the project” if you want to export the Git/SVN
source control settings (such as login username, password,
source code path etc.) to the build file. The password will be
encrypted automatically.Specify how to overwrite the source code settings if the
build file already contains such settings. Existing settings
will be kept by default. If you want to export the current
settings, such as login username, password (encrypted), source
code path etc. to the build file, you should select “Clear
existing settings”. If you have selected “Clear existing
settings”, while have not selected “Export the Git/SVN
SourceControl settings (if exists) from the project”, then
existing settings will be removed and no settings will be
stored.Specify how to overwrite the build job settings and
project settings if the build file already contains such
settings. Such settings will be cleared by default.
-
Click Export.
The exported JSON file includes every single setting that is
required for compiling, packaging and deploying the Application
project. It also contains a “BuildPlan” block which provides
additional configurations. For more, see About the build
file. -
-
Execute the PBAutoBuild220.exe file and the JSON file
in a command line to automatically build the project. For
example,1PBAutoBuild220.exe /f "D:PB2022SalesDemosalesdemo_exe.json" /l Log_PBBuild.log /le Log_PBError.logThe PBAutoBuild220.exe file
supports the following parameters:-
/f — specify the configuration file. The configuration
file (in JSON format) can be directly exported from the
PowerBuilder IDE, as described in step 1.1PBAutoBuild220 /f D:PB2022SalesDemosalesdemo_exe.json -
/l — write the logging information to a file.
-
/le — write the error information to a file. For
example,1PBAutoBuild220 /f D:PB2022SalesDemosalesdemo_exe.json /l Log_PBBuild.log /le Log_PBError.logThe relative path specified in the parameter is relative
to the path of the configuration file. In the above example,
the log files will be generated under the same path as the
configuration file. -
/p — specify the password for logging into SVN or Git.
This will generate an encrypted value based on the password.
If the password contains the double quotation mark (“), use
the escape character ” to replace “.1PBAutoBuild220 /p abcd1234 -
/v — specify the product version (property displayed
for executable)./fv — specify the file version (property displayed for
executable)./vn — specify the product version (executable version
used by installer)./fvn — specify the file version (executable version
used by installer).You can specify for multiple projects at the same time,
in this format:
“[projectname1]:1.0.0.1;[projectname2]:1.2.3.4”. Projects are
separated with semicolons (“;”). For example,1PBAutoBuild220 /f c: est.json /v "project1:1.0.0.1;project2:1.2.3.4" /vn "project1:1.0.0.1;project2:1.2.3.4" /fv "project1:1.0.0.1;project2:1.2.3.4" /fvn "project1:1.0.0.1;project2:1.2.3.4"If no project name is specified, the version number will
be used by all projects. For example,1PBAutoBuild220 /f c: est.json /v "1.0.0.1"The version numbers specified by parameters take
precedence over those specified in the build file. -
/h or /? — display the help information. For
example,1PBAutoBuild220 /h
-
-
Check if PBAutoBuild220 command is successful via
errorlevel. For more information, refer to
Verifying
if PBAutoBuild is successful.
Note
The handling of PB.INI is the same in PBAutoBuild and
OrcaScript:
If the application relies on a property in PB.INI to run, for
example, [RichText] PageSizeAsControlSize=1, the user needs to copy
the PB.INI file to the directory where the application executable
resides.
If the compilation of PBAutoBuild or OrcaScript relies on a
property in PB.INI, for example, [PB] DashInIdentifiers=0, the user
needs to copy the PB.INI file to the directory where
PBAutoBuild220.exe or pbc220.exe resides.