Summary of the 01/29/15 Latest News from the PowerBuilder World webcast

A recording of the webcast can be found here.

SAP

The first guest speaker was Dirk Boessmann, Senior Vice President of Mobile Development at SAP.   He had a question/answer session with the host, Christophe Dufourmantelle.  Dirk had spoken to the German PowerBuilder User Group in October of 2014 during which time he had a "theoretical discussion" of what options a company like SAP might have in deciding a future for a product like PowerBuilder.





Options including:

• Make the product open source. 
• Keep the product in house and bring it up full steam.
• Outsource the development to a trusted partner and keep the brand an intellectual property (IP).
• OEM it to an external partner but keep the brand and IP.
• Keep the IP and give the development and the brand (or the right to brand it differently) to an external partner.
• To give all of the product away to an external partner.

At that time, the only option being ruled out was designating the product as End of Life, though there was also a strong inclination not to make it open source either as the vast majority of open source projects die.

In today's session, Dirk reiterated that End of Life was not a current option.  He noted that if SAP were to ever move in that direction, they would give their customers extensive advance notice.  He indicated that SAP was still investigation the full ramifications of the other options, noting that "everything is on the table" (i.e., all the options were still being considered).  Finally, he noted that he will be coming to the North Carolina PowerBuilder User Group conference in Charlotte in early May of 2015 and was hoping to be able to discuss the final decision then.

Appeon

Appeon 2015 is available now and provides:

• Multi-browser Support (for Web)
• HTML content integration (for Mobile)
• Enhanced SDK Support (for Mobile)
• DropDownCalendar for DataWindow
• PowerBuilder 12.6 Support
• Appeon Debugger Enhancement
• Updated App Server, DB, and OS

Appeon 2015 R2 will be available late in 2015 and will provide:

• Trim and XMLParseFile Functions (for Web)
• OLEStorage and OLEStream Objects (for Web)
• InkPicture Control (for Mobile)
• Native Android Print (for Mobile)
• PostgreSQL DB Support
• Updated App Server, DB, and OS

Reporting Studio

Reporting Studio 2015 provides the following features:

• Run Reports on Web and Mobile 
• Schedule and run reports automatically
• Create Reports from PB Applications
• Crosstabs support
• Advanced Graph Properties
• 64 bits support

When Reporting Studio 2015 R2 is available, it will provide the following features:

• Create Reports via a Web browser
• Java Servers support
• Stored Procedures Result Set
• Nested and Composite DWs
• Stored Functions Support
• Virtual Fields support.

PB Ultimate Suite

A February 2015 to the PB Ultimate Suite update will provide:

• New VS2013 style for:
• PowerDock (docking system)
• the Tab Control
• the Toolbar control
• Right to left support for PowerDock
• New Query Builder Control

An August 2015 update will provide:

• New Buttonlistbar style(s)
• Now allow developers to use PowerDock OpenDocument windows while in MDI mode
• Right to left support for PowerMenu
• Record Navigation Control to navigate through rows of a DW

Software Tool & Die (STD) Frameworks

An open source PowerBuilder framework, which has the following updates:

• Integrated framework: Service Pack #5 (v5.5.0.22) Jan 21 2015
• Web Service framework: Service Pack #3 (v2.3.0.32) Jan 28 2015
• “Active Directory” in a Box: Q1 2015
• Future “In a Box” sets: OCR, Imaging, PDF, Reporting, Spell Checking…

Visual Expert

A new version of Visual Expert is under development that not only analyzes PowerBuilder code, but Oracle PL/SQL code as well.  Features include:

• Analysis of PL/SQL code
• New macros for PB and PL/SQL
• New Documentation Generator
• New system tray agent, with notifications and scheduler
• New (lighter) DB for local Repository
• New event viewer

The beta will start in March of 2015.  People can join the beta by emailing contact@visual-expert.com.

PowerBuilder World Tour 2015

ISUG-TECH is having a their 2015 conference in Atlanta on March 30th to April 1st.  The conference covers a variety of SAP products, including PowerBuilder.

• Over 10 PowerBuilder sessions and workshops
• One 4 hour Pre-Conference PowerBuilder training session (Mar 29th).
• Early Registration open now at $1099 (Full Registration is $1499).

[The announcement of the Atlanta event was inadvertently left out of the webcast]

The North Carolina PowerBuilder User Group is having a conference in Charlotte on May 6th to 8th, 2015.

• Over 25 PB sessions and workshops: Design, mobility, testing, reporting, tips and techniques
• Two days of Pre-Conference Intermediate Training Sessions (May 4 & 5)
• Early Registration open now at $295 (Full Registration is $495)

PowerBuilder.TV webcasts

There are a number of PowerBuilder.TV webcasts in the pipeline, including the following:

• Introduction to PB 12.6 New Features
• Run Reports on Web & Mobile 
• What’s new in Enable 2015
• Analyze your PB + PL/SQL code 
• PB Ultimate Suite 6.0 New features 
• Deploy PB apps to multiple browsers
• Software Tool & Die Foundation Classes
• Cloud-Based Mobile Scorekeeping Solution