Appeon for PowerBuilder Edition Ian Thain ian'thainsybase'com

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Appeon for PowerBuilder EditionIan
Thainian.thain_at_sybase.com
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Market Analysis on PowerBuilder Survey from
Novalys, 3400 participants, 101 countries
How long are you going to use PowerBuilder ?
http//www.novalys.net/info/survey_pb_result2.htm
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Facts and Truth

• My developers are very knowledgeable with PB
• My developers create PB Applications very quickly
• My developers dont know about J2EE, C, .NET
• My applications need to use the WEB (
  INTRA-INTERNET)
• The economy is struggling
• Reduced Budgets, Reduced Costs
• I cannot hire neither dev nor contractors !!
• Arrrrghh !!! What should I do ?
• Hum if I could transform my PB APPS into RICH WEB
  APPS without re-engineering them

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Appeon for PowerBuilder

• Appeon GOAL is
• Transform PURE Client-Server Application into
  RICH WEB Applications
• Keeping the GUI
• Without reverse-engineering
• Without using a new Programing Language
• No JavaScript, No HTML, No XML, No J2EE
• Using what I like
• PB, Datawindows, Datastore, Windows, Menus,
  UserObjects

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So that, If starting from this
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... You will get to this !
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What is Appeon for PowerBuilder ?

• An extension to PowerBuilder called Appeon
  Developer
• The SYBASE Application Server, EAS, with the
  Appeon Framework, this is Appeon Server
• An administration tool to manage transformed
  applications called, Appeon Enterprise Manager,
  AEM

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The Appeon Architecture

• Sybase PowerBuilder 8.0.3 (Enterprise Edition)
• Microsoft Windows 2000 SP3 , NT SP6
• Connectivity to Sybase EAServer 4.2 (Advanced,
  Enterprise Edition)

• IE 5.5 SP2, IE 6.0 SP1

• SQL Server 2000
• Oracle 8i,9i
• Sybase ASA
• Sybase ASE

• Sybase EAServer 4.2 (Advanced or Enterprise
  Edition)
• Sybase ASA 7,ASA 8
• MS Win 2000, NT 4.0
• Optional Adobe Acrobat 4.0 or 5.0 for printing

• Apache, EAServer, iPlanet, Microsoft IIS,
  Netscape
• MS Win2000 SP3, NT 4.0 SP6

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How to use Appeon for PowerBuilder ?

• The same way you use PB today ! If you know PB
  you know Appeon !
• Just Click a Button
• Appeon can be used in 2 ways
• To transform existing CS applications to WEB
  applications
• To create new Web Applications
• The same CS App can coexist with the transformed
  WEB App.

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Transforming existing CS applications, 3 steps
JavaScript( solo en run-time )

• 3 Deploy
• Appeon generates automatically HTML,XML,JavaScript
  files from the PB Application and deploys this
  to the Appeon Server

• 2 Modification
• Developers will work around the non supported
  features
• New Test

• 1 Analysis
• Appeon analyzes PBLS and generates a report of
  non supported features (objects, functions,
  controls )

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Creating new Web App with Appeon, 3 steps
JavaScript(run-time only)

• 3 Deploy
• Appeon generates automatically HTML,XML,JavaScript
  files from the PB Application and deploys this
  to the Appeon Server

• 2 - Test
• Test the PB applications

• 1 Development
• Create new CS Applications using Appeon Supported
  features

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Appeon Developer

• A toolbar added to the PB IDE
• Visualize objects in IE ( windows,datawindows,
  menus )
• Analyze the application searching non supported
  features.
• Configure Web Application Appeon Server
  Environment
• Deploy a Web APP
• Execute a Web APP
• UnDeploy a Web APP
• AEM (Appeon Enterprise Manager)
• Visualize Datawindows in PDF form
• Visualize Datawindows in GIF form
• To be installed and executed from a developper
  machine

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Appeon Enterprise Manager (AEM)

• A Web App to manage the transformed applications
• Configuration, Performance, Security
• To be executed from a browser

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Appeon Server
Client PC / AEM
Appeon Server
Dynamic Web Content
HTML/JS
XML
JSP
Servlet
DataWindow Repository
J2EE
Custom
SSL
OS
Web Services
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Appeon Server

• Appeon Server (Execution Components)
• A set of Java, PowerBuilder and Servlets that
  access EAS services like EAS Connection Caches,
  Instances Pooling
• The components are stateless for better
  performance
• Document Printing is done thru Acrobat PDF Writer
  and directly if the GIF format is chosen
• RoundTrips to the server are minimized thank to
  the Appeon JavaScript WEBLIB
• The runtime generates a GUI as close as posible
  to the original CS Application
• Intensive use of HTML, XML and JavaScript
• Files ( XML, HTML, JPG, PDF, JavaScript, etc.)
  are downloaded to the client thru regular HTTP
  requests
• No Need for Plug-ins, Java Applets, or ActiveX !

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Appeon, Deployment Process

• Code Export of PB Objects ( srX)
• Converts PB Code source to Unicode
• Converts Unicode to XML
• Analyzes XML files looking for unsupported
  features
• Converts those XML files to HTML, XML and
  compressed-encrypted JavaScript files
• Appeon JavaScript WEB Library has a 1-1 mapping
  with existing PowerScript functions
• Deploys the WEB APP files to the Appeon Server

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Appeon, deployed files

• All JavaScript is compressed and encrypted which
  reduces the file size gt 50 and protects the
  customer business logic investment

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Unsupported Appeon Features

• OLE Objects
• External Functions
• External Visual User Objects
• Drag Drop
• File Access Functions
• Registry Access Functions
• Full List in Documentation

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Appeon 3.0 Features

• PowerBuilder 9.0 Support
• Document Printing thru native PB 9.0, no need for
  Acrobat PDF Writer
• ARC (Appeon Reporting Class) InfoMaker/Other
  Reporting Framework
• External Applications
• Connectivity to external applications like
  Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes, GIS Software like
  ESRI, MapInfo, MapPoint, etc.
• Dynamic SQL Types Format 3 and Format 4
• IBM LDAP SecureWay Directory
• Unix Appeon Server Support for Sun Solaris,
  HP/UX, and IBM AIX

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Appeon 3.0 Features

• PFC (Powersoft Foundation Class) PowerCerv
  PowerTool Framework Verification/Support and
  Migration Documents
• N-Tier Server Calls
• Web Services
• Java/EJB, C/C DLL, COM/ActiveX Components on
  Application Servers
• PowerBuilder Non-Visual Object (NVO) Components
• No Web Browser or Appeon limitations on code
  running inside PB NVOs
• Customer decides which PB NVOs to run inside
  Appeon Server and which to run in browser through
  encrypted JavaScript
• Dynamic DataWindow Cache Refresh for
  Browser-cached DataWindows
• Dynamic Count of Current Number of Sessions,
  other Appeon Services
• 2-Phase Database Commit Support
• Dynamic Object Creation Updating
• Local Transaction Objects
• DataWindow Objects
• Also dynamically adding DataWindow Controls
• Visual User Objects

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Appeon Business Benefits

• Business Benefits
• Preserves User Productivity (Identical GUI in
  Web)
• Moving rich Client/Server applications to Web
  applications always lose user productivity before
  Appeon
• Appeon provides the most graphical web user
  interface possible
• Removes the expense and need for User Re-Training
• Way to move PowerBuilder applications to the web
  without a substantial rewrite while using
  tremendous reuse of code
• Fast Path to the Web
• Preserves Developer Productivity Experience (PB
  4GL/RAD IDE)
• Will become a standard for much new web
  application development
• Leverages Existing Investments for Web Portal
  Futures
• Low Risk

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Appeon Technical Benefits

• Technical Benefits
• Single PowerBuilder (PB) Code Base for both C/S
  and Web
• Reuse most all PowerBuilder objects, PowerScript
  code, Event-driven architecture, Object-Oriented
  Code, and embedded SQL
• Windows, DataWindows, Menus, Toolbars, User
  Objects
• Code and Maintain with PB using standard, easy,
  straight-forward PB Client/Server Programming
• Deploy to a true web architecture quickly
• Automatic Adobe Acrobat PDF, Microsoft Excel, and
  Text files
• No Coding of HTML, JavaScript, J2EE or .NET
  Required
• No need for re-architecting or re-writing in
  multiple tiers, languages, IDEs, and
  specifications
• Performance through Data Caching on the Browser
• Security SSL/HTTPS, Firewall/Port 80, Appeon
  Security Handshake, LDAP, Application Timeout,
  Application Security, Business Logic Encryption
• Scalability - N-tier design, failover/clustering,
  stateless

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Competitive Landscape
Appeon(Sybase)
J2EE (IBM/ORCL/BEA)
VB.net (Microsoft)
Development Time Project Cost Openness Applic
ation Usability Maintenance Performance
Days/Weeks
Months/Years
Months/Years
Low Appeon EAServer Hardware (minimal)
Very High Developer Training User Re-Training
Application Re-write Hardware (minimal) J2EE
Server
Very High Developer Training User Re-Training
Application Re-write Hardware (???) .Net Server
Very Good
Excellent
Good
Excellent
Good
Good
Very Simple
Moderate (Deployment Descriptors)
Moderate (VB Issues)
Excellent
Excellent
Excellent
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Return on Investment (Migration)
Appeon(Sybase)
J2EE (IBM/ORCL/BEA)
VB.NET (Microsoft)
Any IE PowerBuilder Low Medium Low 2
weeks Low
Any Any if coded that way Java Medium Medium
High 6 months Very High
App Server OS Platform Client Platform Business
Components Total Application Development Costs
(Migration) HardwareCost Software
Cost Engineering (Rate based on
Dice.com) Total Cost
Microsoft IE C, Visual Basic Medium Medium
High 6 months High
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Questions ?