About this book

Audience

This book is for anyone who builds applications with PowerBuilder®. It assumes that:

How to use this book

This book describes the PowerBuilder development environment. It shows you how to use PowerBuilder user interface tools to build the objects you need, including windows, menus, DataWindow® objects, and user-defined objects, to create client/server and multitier applications.

Related documents

Application Techniques presents information about programming techniques and building multitier applications.

Deploying Applications and Components to .NET explains how to build applications in PowerBuilder and deploy them as .NET Windows Forms or ASP.NET applications. It also describes how to deploy custom class user objects as .NET assemblies and Web services.

The DataWindow Programmer’s Guide explains how to use DataWindow objects in different environments and presents programming techniques related to DataWindows.

Working with JSP Targets describes the tools provided with PowerBuilder for creating and deploying Web sites and JavaServer Pages.

For a description of all the books in the PowerBuilder documentation set, see the preface of the PowerBuilder Getting Started manual.

Other sources of information

Use the Sybase Getting Started CD, the SyBooks CD, and the Sybase Product Manuals Web site to learn more about your product:

Conventions

The formatting conventions used in this manual are:

Formatting example

Indicates

Retrieve and Update

When used in descriptive text, this font indicates:

  • Command, function, and method names

  • Keywords such as true, false, and null

  • Datatypes such as integer and char

  • Database column names such as emp_id and f_name

  • User-defined objects such as dw_emp or w_main

variable or file name

When used in descriptive text and syntax descriptions, oblique font indicates:

  • Variables, such as myCounter

  • Parts of input text that must be substituted, such as pblname.pbd

  • File and path names

File>Save

Menu names and menu items are displayed in plain text. The greater than symbol (>) shows you how to navigate menu selections. For example, File>Save indicates “select Save from the File menu.”

dw_1.Update()

Monospace font indicates:

  • Information that you enter in a dialog box or on a command line

  • Sample script fragments

  • Sample output fragments

If you need help

Each Sybase installation that has purchased a support contract has one or more designated people who are authorized to contact Sybase Technical Support. If you cannot resolve a problem using the manuals or online help, please have the designated person contact Sybase Technical Support or the Sybase subsidiary in your area.