Starting PowerBuilder with an open workspace
When you start PowerBuilder, most of the time you probably
want to pick up where you left off the day before. You can have
PowerBuilder open the workspace that you used last, and even open
the painters you had open with the last Script view you touched
open at the code you were working on.
Using options in the development environment
There are three options on the Workspaces page of the System
Options dialog box that you can use to determine what displays when
you start PowerBuilder.
To open the System Options dialog box:
-
Select Tools>System Options from
the menu bar.
Opening just the workspace
If you want PowerBuilder to open the last workspace you used
at startup, check Reopen Workspace at Startup.
Opening the workspace, painters, and scripts
If you want PowerBuilder to open the last workspace you used and
the
painters and editors you were using, check Reopen Workspace on Startup
and Reload Painters When Opening Workspace. When you open PowerBuilder,
any painters and editors that were open when you closed PowerBuilder
are reloaded. If you edited a script before closing PowerBuilder,
the Script view is scrolled to show the last line you edited.
Opening with no workspace
If you want PowerBuilder to open without loading a workspace,
clear Reopen Workspace on Startup. If you want the painters and
editors that were open when you last used a workspace to be reloaded
when you reopen it, clear Reopen Workspace on Startup and check
Reload Painters When Opening Workspace.
Displaying the Welcome dialog box
If you want to see the Welcome to PowerBuilder dialog box
when you start PowerBuilder, check Show Start Dialog at Startup
with no Workspace and clear Reopen Workspace at Startup. The Welcome
to PowerBuilder dialog box is shown in “The PowerBuilder environment”.
Using a workspace file
Double-click a workspace file in Windows Explorer. Workspaces
have a .pbw extension. PowerBuilder starts with the workspace open.
Using command line arguments
You can start
PowerBuilder from a command line (or the Windows Run dialog box)
and optionally open a workspace, target, and/or painter:
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| /workspace workspacepath | Open the workspace workspacepath |
| /target targetpath | Open the target targetpath |
| /painter paintername | Opens the painter paintername |
Building from the command line You can also build and deploy a workspace from the command
line. For more information, see “Building workspaces”.
These are the painters and tools you can open:
| Application painter |
Library painter |
| Database painter | Menu painter |
| Data Pipeline painter |
Query painter |
| DataWindow painter |
Structure painter |
| Debug window | User Object painter |
| File Editor | Window painter |
| Function painter |
You need only use the initial letter or letters of the option
name as long as the option is uniquely identified.
Opening objects
You can also add one or more of the following optional switches
to the command line to open a specific object or create a new one:
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{/L <i>libraryname</i>} {/O <i>objectname</i>} {/I} {/N} {/R} {/RO} {/A <i>arguments</i>} |
All of the following switches must follow /P paintername
on
the command line, as shown in the examples after the tables.
| Option | Description |
|---|---|
| /I | Identifies the object you want to inherit from |
| /L | Identifies the library that contains the object you want to open |
| /O | Identifies the object, such as a DataWindow object or window, you want to open |
| /N | Creates a new DataWindow object |
| /R | Runs the DataWindow object specified with /O and allows designing |
| /RO | Runs the DataWindow object specified with /O but does not allow designing |
| /A | Provides arguments for the specified DataWindow object |
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| directory | The fully qualified name of the directory containing PowerBuilder |
| paintername | The name of the painter you want to open. The default is the window that displays when you begin a new PowerBuilder session The painter name must uniquely identify the painter. You do not have to enter the entire name. For example, you can enter q to open the Query painter and datab to open the Database painter. If you enter the full name, omit any spaces in the name (enter UserObject and DataPipeline, for example)The painter name is not case sensitive. To open the file editor, you could set paintername to FI or fileeditor |
| libraryname | The name of the library that contains the object you want to open. The default is the library specified in the DefLib variable in the [PB] section of the PowerBuilder initialization file |
| objectname | The name of the object you want to open |
To start PowerBuilder and open a painter, use the following
syntax:
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<i>directory</i>pb90.exe /w<i> workspacepath</i> /P <i>paintername</i> |
Examples
The following examples assume that the location of the PowerBuilder
8 executable file is in your system path.
This example starts a PowerBuilder session by opening the
Window painter in the Client PBL in the Math workspace. The output
of the session is sent to a file called math.log. The workspace
file, the PBL, and the log file are all in the current directory:
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pb80 /w Math.pbw /l Client.pbl /p window /out math.log |
Enter this command to start PowerBuilder and open the DataWindow
object called d_emp_report in the workspace Emp.pbw:
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pb90 /w D:pbwsEmp.pbw /P dataw /O d_emp_report |