PBNI

1
PBNI

• Using the PowerBuilder Native Interface to Extend
  Your Applications

2
Whos in the Audience?

• PowerBuilder Developers
• 7.x
• 8.x
• 9.0
• C Development Experience
• Windows
• Visual C / C Builder / gcc / Open Watcom
• MFC / ATL / WTL / Managed C
• Watcom C Class Builder (PB4 EE)
• Unix

3
What is PBNI?

• PowerBuilder Native Interface
• PowerScript
• PBNI is a standard programming interface that
  allows developers to extend PowerScript with C
  classes
• This feature targets Client / Server and thick /
  rich distributed client applications
• PBVM Anywhere
• PBNI also enables the embedding of the
  PowerBuilder VM in C applications and either
  run complete PowerBuilder applications or invoke
  selective PowerScript functions
• This feature will allows for the deployment of
  PowerBuilder NVOs in 3rd party application
  servers

4
PBNI-gtPowerScript

• Advantages
• Performance
• True machine-code execution
• Convenience
• Ability to return strings and arrays instead of
  passing by REF
• No need to pre-allocate memory using Space(n)
• No need to declare complex structures
• Auto-generated PBD just add to your library
  list and code

5
PBNI-gtPowerScript

• Considerations
• Complexity
• Solid C knowledge required, as PBNI uses
  advanced C concepts like templates and traits
• Functionality
• Properties can only be exposed via Get/Set
  methods, which, while common in C/Java, are
  less prevalent in PowerScript (uses instance
  variables)
• Debugging
• C debugger required

6
PBNI-gtCode Examples

• PBNI implementations available today
• XML/XSLT API
• PBDOM, Xpath
• Java and .NET interoperability
• PB2Java, EJB Client, PDF Encryptor
• Web Services
• SOAP Client
• Complex API wrappers
• Callback functions (DBTools, Win32 enumerations)

7
PBNI-gtCode Examples

• PBNI implementations available today
• PB-friendly COM wrappers
• Event support
• Visual objects (sub-classing and owner-drawn
  controls)
• Utility classes
• Bitwise operations
• SMTP
• Base64
• STL collection classes (map, list, queue, stack)
• CPU Information

8
PBNI-gtCode Examples

• PBNI Power Pack
• .NET PDF Encryptor
• XPath Evaluator
• Callbacks
• Visual Controls
• SDN CodeXchange http//codexchange.sybase.com

9
What is PBNI?

• PBNI exposes 4 core C interfaces
• PowerScript
• IPB_Session
• IPB_Value
• IPB_Arguments
• PBVM Anywhere
• IPB_VM

10
PBNI-gtPowerScript

• IPB_Session
• An abstract class (structure) that provides a
  low-level interface to PowerScript
• Defines functions for
• Accessing PowerScript data
• Calling PowerScript functions
• Catching and throwing PowerScript exceptions
• Setting marshaler class objects
• Marshalers act as conduits between PowerBuilder
  and other component models like EJB.

11
PBNI-gtPowerScript

• IPB_Value
• An abstract class (structure) that provides a
  high-level interface to PowerScript
• Analogous to PowerScripts any data type
• Provides some protection from coding many
  operations that could cause crashes (e.g.,
  assigning a long value to a string variable)

12
PBNI-gtPBVM Anywhere

• IPB_VM
• An abstract interface that enables 3rd party
  client and server applications to load the
  PowerBuilder VM into their process and run a
  PowerBuilder application/component

13
What is PBNI?
14
PBNI-gtPowerScript

• PBNI classes can inherit from
• NonVisualObjet and its descendants, e.g.
• Connection
• Error
• Exception
• Transaction
• UserObject and its descendants
• PBNI extensions (PBXs) can expose
• Object-level functions and events
• Global functions

15
PBNI-gtGetting Started

• Setting up a developmentenvironment
• C IDEs/Compilers
• Visual C (6.0 and .NET )
• Borland C Builder
• GNU gcc
• Include Directory
• INCLUDEC\Sybase\PowerBuilder 9.0\SDK\PBNI\includ
  e
• Library Directory
• LIBC\Sybase\PowerBuilder 9.0\SDK\PBNI\lib

16
PBNI-gtGetting Started

• Header Files
• pbext.h contains structures and interfaces used
  to implement PBXs
• pbni.h contains structures and interface
  definitions for core PBNI
• pbnimd.h contains machine-dependent (Win32) type
  definitions
• pbarray.h contains template classes for creating
  and accessing arrays
• pbfield.h contains template classes for creating
  and accessing class variables
• pbtraits.h contains template structures used in
  pbarray.h and pbfield.h
• pbevtid.h contains constants for PB standard and
  custom event IDs
• Library Files
• pbni.lib

17
PBNI-gtGetting Started

• Every PBNI class should include ltpbext.hgt
• You should not include any other PBNI header
  file in your class
• Every PBNI class should export the following
  functions
• PBX_GetDescription()
• always (used by pbx2pbd90.exe PBD generator)
• PBX_CreateNonVisualObject()
• PBX_CreateVisualObject()
• PBX_InvokeGlobalFunction()

18
PBNI-gtGetting Started

• Visual C 6.0 AppWizard
• C\Sybase\PowerBuilder 9.0\SDK\PBNI\wizards\pbext.
  awx

19
PBNI-gtGetting Started

• Visual C .NET AppWizard
• http//www.teamsybase.com/roy.kiesler/downloads.xm
  l
• CodeXchange

20
PBNI-gtTomorrow

• PBNI implementations to look for in the future
• PBSAX XML Parser
• Generic .NET
• NT Services
• Windows Hooks

21
PBNI

• Seeing the Technology in Action

22
(No Transcript)