POWERBUILDER Strategy and Roadmap May 2009 Dave Fish, Engineering Evangelist

POWERBUILDER Strategy and Roadmap

May 2009Dave Fish, Engineering Evangelist

2 – Sybase Confidential – April 19, 2023

PowerBuilder Value Proposition

PowerBuilder is the easiest, most cost effective way to leverage existing code and developer skills, and at the same time, keep business critical applications running without incurring costs to rewrite or learn new technologies

Safest path to .NET, best alternative to Microsoft for PowerBuilder customers

Future proofs your investment – good for business bottom line


PowerBuilder: Goals & Strategy

Goals– Ensure satisfaction of loyal PowerBuilder users

Sybase is the only vendor providing a migration path to .NET, leveraging customers’ investment in code and skills

– Attract new developers - former users, new customers

Strategy– Ensure PowerBuilder is easiest, most cost effective way to develop

applications for the .NET platform– Abstract complexities of emerging technologies

– Extend PowerBuilder code to .NET, Web, and Mobile development– Increase awareness, usage in .NET developer base, universities– Leverage Microsoft’s infrastructure, focus PowerBuilder engineering

on differentiating technologies


PowerBuilder’s Roadmap to .NET– Successfully executed phases 1-3, plus 2 additional releases – v10.5 and v11.5– Phase 4 to be delivered 1st half 2010– Post v12 roadmap in progress– Formidable R&D investment for Visual Studio shell integration within

PowerBuilder IDE for complete .NET integration


What’s next? Beyond .NET

– Comprehensive support, alignment with Microsoft platform– Simplify development through technology differentiation– Support emerging technologies, standards– Deliver built-in end-to-end Application Lifecycle

Management via MS shell– Beyond PowerBuilder 12

Major and minor releases to support– Silverlight – RAD development for the Web– Sharepoint Webparts– WCF, Oslo/M– Windows 7– Cloud, SSDS (SQL Server Data Services)– Multi-channel apps (different target types within the

PowerBuilder IDE)


PowerBuilder 11.5 PowerBuilder 12.0

•WebForm performance enhancements•.NET Code Access Security (CAS) updates•.NET language enhancements

•Updated graphing, gradients, tooltips, rich text for DataWindow•ISUG enhancements

Best alternative for .NET development

•DB Driver updates•DW WPF•Web services (DW enhancements)

•WPF DataWindow•Web Services additional support

Maintain, modernize existingapplications

Maintain our paradigm anddifferentiators

•Managed code•Language support•WPF support

•Major DataWindow enhancements, graphics, functionality, UI•Oracle 11g

DRAFT SCHEDULE – SUBJECT TO CHANGE

1H 2010Sept 2008

Current Roadmap

PowerBuilder 11.5.1Minor release, bug fixes,

enhancements

•Informix 11.5•MSS 2008•DW enhancements

•DW look and feel enhancements

Q2 2009

•.NET Framework 3.5.1

POWERBUILDER 11.5.1


PowerBuilder 11.5.1 New Features

• Deployment support for the Windows 2000 platform

• JDK 1.6 Support

• FIPS 140-2 certification

• Support for Microsoft Office 2007 Excel formats

• Support for SQL Anywhere 11.0 mirroring

• Informix 11.5 Support

• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 support


Deployment support for the Windows 2000 platform

• PowerBuilder 11.5.1 includes deployment and runtime support for the Windows 2000 platform that was previously discontinued with the PowerBuilder 11.5 release

• Windows 2000 is not supported as a development platform, and runtime support may be removed in future releases of PowerBuilder


JDK 1.6 Support

• PowerBuilder 11.5.1 applications and components include support for JDK1.6_02, that you can optionally install with the Sybase EAServer 6.2 setup program


FIPS 140-2 certification

• The development environment meets the encryption requirements of the Federal Information Processing Standard (FIPS) as outlined in Publication 140-2 of the United States government's National Institute of Standards and Technology

• PowerBuilder embeds the Certicom 5.x cryptographic modules– Support is certified for the PowerBuilder development

environment only, not for runtime applications that are built with PowerBuilder

• The FIPS 140-2 standard requires that passwords be encrypted– The PowerBuilder 11.5.1 user interface displays all passwords

as strings of asterisks– Some files with passwords, such as database profiles, that

you export from PowerBuilder 11.5.1, cannot be correctly imported into earlier versions of PowerBuilder


FIPS 140-2 certification

• However you can still import files containing unencrypted passwords from earlier versions of PowerBuilder

• When you save these files in—or export them from— PowerBuilder 11.5.1, the passwords are encrypted using a FIPS compatible method


Support for Microsoft Office 2007 Excel formats• You can now save DataWindow and graph data in .XSLX and .XSLB

(Excel12) format, with or without column headers

• .NET Framework 3.0 or later must be installed on development and runtime computers to use this functionality– Cannot save data in these formats on Windows 2000

computers

• You can use the PowerScript SaveAs command with graphs or DataWindow controls to save data to Excel 2007 formats by setting the saveas type argument to XLSX! or XLSB!

• You can export DataWindow data to Excel 2007 formats by selecting one of the Excel12 items from the drop-down list in the Save As dialog box that displays when you select the Save Rows As menu item in the DataWindow painter


Support for Microsoft Office 2007 Excel formats• Excel 2007 support is dependent on the following strongly

named assemblies:

– Sybase.PowerBuilder.DataWindow.Excel12.dll This assembly is installed in the GAC

– PBDWExcel12Interop115.dll This assembly is installed in the Sybase/Shared/PowerBuilder directory

• These DLLs are deployed by the Runtime Packager when you select the MS Excel12 Support check box


Support for SQL Anywhere 11.0 mirroring• PowerBuilder 11.5.1 allows you to take advantage of SQL

Anywhere 11.0 database mirroring

• Database mirroring is a configuration of either two or three database servers that cooperate to maintain copies of database and transaction log files

• If the primary server becomes unavailable because of hardware or software failure, the mirror server negotiates with the SQL Anywhere arbiter server to take ownership of the database and assume the role of primary server


Informix 11.5 Support• PowerBuilder 11.5.1 applications and components work

correctly with the Informix 11.5 DBMS through the I10 interface, although new Informix 11.5 features are not supported in this release

• You can use the 110 Informix v10.x database driver to connect to the Informix 11.5 DBMS, but this also requires that you upgrade the Informix client from Informix SDK 2.9 to Informix SDK3.5


Microsoft SQL Server 2008 support• PowerBuilder 11.5 included support for many of the new SQL

Server 2008 features, but the GA SQL Server product was not available for complete testing before the PowerBuilder release date

• These features have been tested with PowerBuilder 11.5.1. They are described in the New Features Guide for PowerBuilder 11.5, and in the online Help

POWERBUILDER .NET


A New PowerBuilder IDE for WPF Development

Built utilizing the Visual Studio Isolated Shell



• Leveraging Visual Studio features– Isolated Shell provides framework and features– UI– Editor– WPF Designer– Debugger

• Plug-in existing PowerBuilder components– Database Painter– SQL Painter– etc.



• Provides a familiar PowerBuilder experience– Little or no re-training

• Provides usability enhancements consistent with other major IDEs

• Keeps PowerBuilder current with latest functionality

POWERBUILDER .NET DEMONSTRATION


PowerBuilder Messaging

• Comprehensive .NET– Design time– Managed code runtime– Full language support– Visual Studio Shell integration

• WPF– Rich UI– Groundwork for Silverlight– New DataWindow – now

speed of development is matched by rich UI

• The Foundation for the Future– WPF Workshop sets stage for

Silverlight– End-to-end development

(design thru testing) via MS– Support for Win32 into

foreseeable future

Core Messaging – All ReleasesPowerBuilder 12 Messaging

• PowerBuilder is .NET• The DataWindow’s productivity is

unmatched• Openness

– Multiple RDBMS support– Deployment to .NET, JEE,

Web, Component-based• Maximizes value


Summary:PowerBuilder .NET

• Build WPF applications with a familiar PowerBuilder experience

• Provide your users with rich, progressive user interfaces


Summary:PowerBuilder .NET

• No need to go to another tool for your .NET requirements

• Extend your skills and your existing code to new incarnations of the .NET framework


Our Future, Your Future

• Sybase continues to be focused on the Developer

• PowerBuilder is the most versatile tool for the PowerBuilder community for: – .NET– JEE– Mobile– Pure Client/Server


Our Future, Your Future

• PowerBuilder is the smart business decision for your bottom line

– Reduces risk– Leverages investment in code and skill– Extends into the future

Documents

POWERBUILDER Strategy and Roadmap May 2009 Dave Fish, Engineering Evangelist