Defining an executable app project – PB Docs 2019

Executable file name

Specify a name for the executable. The name must
have the extension EXE. If you do not want the executable
saved to your current directory, click the Browse (…) button
next to the box to navigate to a different
directory.

Resource file name

(Optional) Specify a PowerBuilder resource file
(PBR) for your executable if you dynamically reference
resources (such as bitmaps and icons) in your scripts and you
want the resources included in the executable file instead of
having to distribute the resources separately.

You
can type the name of a resource file in the box or click the
button next to the box to browse your directories for the
resource file you want to include.

For more about
PBRs, see Distributing
resources.

Prompt for overwrite

Select this if you want PowerBuilder to prompt
you before overwriting files. PowerBuilder overwrites any
files it creates when building your
application.

Windows classic style

Select this to add a manifest file to the
application that specifies the appearance of the controls as
an application resource.

By default, this option
is not selected, which means the Windows flat style is used
and the 3D effect of some controls will be removed to have a
“flat” look, for example, the 3D lowered border of Column and
Computed Field in the DataWindow object, the background color
of Button, the BackColor and TextColor of tooltip, and the
TabBackColor of tab header will not take effect. If you still
want the 3D effect, you should select the “Windows classic
style” option when deploying the application.

Rebuild

Specify either Full or Incremental to indicate
whether you want PowerBuilder to regenerate all objects in the
application libraries before it creates the executable and
dynamic libraries. If you choose Incremental, PowerBuilder
regenerates only objects that have changed, and objects that
reference any objects that have changed, since the last time
you built your application.

As a precaution,
regenerate all objects before rebuilding your
project.

Platform

Select if the executable can run on 32-bit or
64-bit machines.

Machine Code

Select this if you want to generate compiled code
instead of Pcode. For more information about compiled code and
Pcode, see the section called “Compiler basics” in Application Techniques.

Selecting Machine
Code enables the other code generation options in the Project
painter. They cannot be set in the wizard.

Trace Information

Select this if you want to create a trace file
when you run your compiled code executable. You can use the
trace file to troubleshoot or profile your application. For
more information on obtaining trace information, see Tracing execution.

Error Context Information

Select this if you want PowerBuilder to display
context information (such as object, event, and script line
number) for runtime errors.

Optimization

Select an optimization level. You can build your
application with no optimizations, or you can optimize for
speed or space.

Enable DEBUG symbol

Select to enable any code that you placed in
DEBUG conditional code blocks. For more information, see Using the DEBUG preprocessor
symbol.

PBC runtime parameters

Directly copy the runtime parameters which are
automatically displayed here according to the options
selected, and execute them with the PowerBuilder
Complier.

For more information about PowerBuilder
Complier, see About OrcaScript
or the standalone PBC user guide (pbc.pdf) in the PBC folder
after installation.

Libraries page

The label for the PBD or DLL check box depends on
whether you are building a Pcode or machine code executable.
Select the check box to define a library as a dynamic library
to be distributed with your application.

If you
are generating Pcode, you create PBD files. If you are
generating machine code, you create DLL files. For more about
dynamic libraries, see Using dynamic
libraries.

Specify a resource file for a
dynamic library if it uses resources (such as bitmaps and
icons) and you want the resources included in the dynamic
library instead of having to distribute the resources
separately. The file name cannot be specified in the
wizard.

Version page

Specify your own values for the Product Name,
Company Name, Description, Copyright, Product Version, and
File Version fields associated with the executable file and
with machine-code DLLs. These values become part of the
Version resource associated with the executable file, and most
of them display on the Version tab page of the Properties
dialog box for the file in Windows Explorer. The Product and
File version string fields can have any
format.

The Product and File version numeric
fields in the “Executable version used by installer” group box
are used by Microsoft Installer to determine whether a file
needs to be updated when a product is
installed.

The Product Version final value will
automatically include the runtime version to help users easily
identify which runtime version is used by the executable file,
for example, if you input “1.0.2” to the Product Version
field, the Product Version displayed in the executable file
properties will look like this “1.0.0.2 (Runtime:
19.2.0.2670)”.

The four numbers can be used to
represent the major version, minor version, point release, and
build number of your product. They must all be present. If
your file versioning system does not use all these components,
you can replace the unused numbers with zeros. The maximum
value for any of the numbers is 65535.

Security page

Use the Security tab page to generate a manifest
file (either external or embedded) and to set the execution
level of the application. To meet the certification
requirements of the Windows logo program the application
executable must have an embedded manifest that defines the
execution level and specifies whether access to the user
interface of another window is required.

For
further information, see Attaching or
embedding manifest files.

Run page

Specify command-line arguments, the application’s
working directory, and the runtime path (a relative or
absolute path) that will be displayed in the application XML
file.

The Application field displays the name and
location of the executable file and is not editable. You can
change these properties on the General page.