What PowerBuilder is – PB Docs 2017

PowerBuilder is an enterprise development tool that allows you to
build many types of applications and components. It is one of a group of
Appeon products that together provide the tools to develop client/server,
multitier, and Internet applications.

What’s in a PowerBuilder
application?

A PowerBuilder client application can contain:

PowerBuilder applications are event
driven

In a client application, users control what happens by the actions
they take. For example, when a user clicks a button, chooses an item from
a menu, or enters data into a text box, one or more events are triggered.
You write scripts that specify the processing that should happen when
events are triggered.

Windows, controls, and other application components you create with
PowerBuilder each have a set of predefined events. For example, each
button has a Clicked event associated with it and each text box has a
Modified event. Most of the time, the predefined events are all you need.
However, in some situations, you may want to define your own
events.

PowerScript language

You write scripts using PowerScript, the PowerBuilder language.
Scripts consist of PowerScript commands, functions, and statements that
perform processing in response to an event.

For example, the script for a button’s Clicked event might retrieve
and display information from the database; the script for a text box’s
Modified event might evaluate the data and perform processing based on the
data.

The execution of an event script can also cause other events to be
triggered. For example, the script for a Clicked event in a button might
open another window, triggering the Open event in that window.

PowerScript functions

PowerScript provides a rich assortment of built-in functions that
can act on the various components of your application. For example, there
is a function to open a window, a function to close a window, a function
to enable a button, a function to update the database, and so on.

You can also build your own functions to define processing unique to
your application.

Object-oriented programming with
PowerBuilder

Each menu or window you create with PowerBuilder is a self-contained
module called an object. The basic building blocks of a PowerBuilder
application are the objects you create. Each object contains the
particular characteristics and behaviors (properties, events, and
functions) that are appropriate to it. By taking advantage of
object-oriented programming techniques such as encapsulation, inheritance,
and polymorphism, you can get the most out of each object you create,
making your work more reusable, extensible, and powerful.

Multitier applications

PowerBuilder lets you build applications that run in a distributed
computing environment. A multitier application lets you:

For information about multitier applications, see Developing Distributed Applications in Application Techniques.

Database connectivity

PowerBuilder provides easy access to corporate information stored in
a wide variety of databases. Data can be accessed through the PowerBuilder
ODBC or JDBC interfaces, through a middle-tier data access server like the
SAP DirectCONNECT server, or through a native or direct connection to a
database.

For information on database connectivity, see Working with Database Connections in Connecting to Your Database.

Online Help and
documentation

PowerBuilder Help can be accessed using Help buttons and menu items,
or by selecting the F1 key from anywhere in PowerBuilder. There are jumps
in several places from the Help to books in HTML format. Manuals are also
available on the Appeon Web site.