powerbuilder saveas & print enhancement

wong KS

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May 14, 2008, 11:17:37 AM5/14/08

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I wonder why sybase didn't want to improve the 'saveas' function, like
saving to excel file type, but always promote other addon library
(dw2xls.pbd). the sybase surely have enough fund to buy the dw2xls
library to link with PB library, it will create an extra point to
powerbuilder value, somehow compile and link .pbd to client existing
.pbl cannot run in 'full mode'.

About the print function, why not add a library to print all the
datawindow including all variables to a static text or image document ?
printing to .PDF mostly the same, but cannot load to a datawindow. may
be there will be an option 'change all variables to static text' to
print to .PSR files ?

those just simple ideas, why don't improve it ?

Dave Fish [TeamSybase]

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May 14, 2008, 2:57:54 PM5/14/08

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We welcome all enhancement requests and we do implement a lot of them.
Go to www.isug.com and enter enhancement requests such as this. You
need to realize that we receive hundreds of enhancement requests every
year and we can't implement all of them so we have to prioritize. The
enhancements that receive the most votes are often implemented but
sometimes the scope of an enhancement request is too large or too
difficult to implement so it gets passed over.

We are currently working an a rewrite of the DataWindow engine to
support WPF and enhancements like SaveAs Excel and retain formatting
is being considered.

Regards,
Dave Fish
Sybase

PowerBuilder Blog:
http://powerbuilderevangelist.blogspot.com/

cfauvel

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May 15, 2008, 9:40:43 AM5/15/08

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I love Dw2XLS, but would love to see a notive pb dw saves xls preserving the
formatting being presented.

wysiwyg would be awesome

and if it could have parameteres to tell it to supply the raw data in
another sheet if desired would be cool too.

"Dave Fish [TeamSybase]" <n0Spam...@sybase.com> wrote in message
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wong KS

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May 15, 2008, 10:32:21 PM5/15/08

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I think this is the basic part to improve the datawindow, I see the
'saveas' function didn't upgrade since version 6.x till now, is this
powerbuilder had a blue print of future development or just design on
demand ?

Dave Fish [TeamSybase]

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May 15, 2008, 11:26:04 PM5/15/08

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I have to disagree with your statement. We have made numerous
enhancements to the SaveAs functionality between 6.5 and 11 and we are
planning more for version 12. Some enhancements were driven by
customer requests but others were proactive based on changes in
technology and what becomes popular.

Regards,
Dave Fish
Sybase

PowerBuilder Blog:
http://powerbuilderevangelist.blogspot.com/

Jim Madderra

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May 16, 2008, 2:20:49 AM5/16/08

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If they upgrade SaveAs for Excel, please consider adding ability to save to
multiple sheets. I've had to build my own with PB, but would prefer a
faster native implementation that can handle more than the 64k row limit by
creating sheets (page 1-n) on the fly.

"wong KS" <wongk...@gmail.com> wrote in message
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wong KS

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May 20, 2008, 6:18:06 AM5/20/08

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I see the saveas to excel format didn't change at all from version 6.5
to 11, that's the most users ask everytime when we offer our application.

I think I'll wait and see for version 12. Possible to saveas to new XLS
format (.XLSX) ?

wong KS

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May 20, 2008, 6:17:55 AM5/20/08

to n0Spam...@sybase.com

I see the saveas to excel format didn't change at all from version 6.5
to 11, that's the most users ask everytime when we offer our application.

I think I'll wait and see for version 12. Possible to saveas to new XLS

format (.XLSX) ?

Dave Fish [TeamSybase]

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May 20, 2008, 8:49:16 AM5/20/08

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Actually we have updated the SaveAs Excel format between 6.5 and 11. A
while back we introduced the SaveAs Excel5 and later the Excel8
options. We also added SaveAsFormattedText and SaveAsASCII functions.

For PowerBuilder 12 we will be adding support for:

Excel 2007 (Excel 12)
The raw data of DataWindow can be stored in Office Open XML format
(.xlsx) or binary format (.xlsb).

XML Paper Specification (XPS)
This is a fixed layout electronic file format that preserves document
formatting. Microsoft is pushing XPS format as alternative to PDF.

We are looking at also supporting the layout when exported to Excel
similar to what DW2XLS does.

By the way, this is a good opportunity to mention the SaveAs formats
that we will not be supporting in PowerBuilder 12:

DB2
DB3
Dif
Emf
Excel
Excel5
Html Table
PSR
Sylk
Wk1
Wks
Wmf
Xsl-fo

Regards,
Dave Fish
Sybase

PowerBuilder Blog:
http://powerbuilderevangelist.blogspot.com/

Jason 'Bug' Fenter [TeamSybase]

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May 22, 2008, 10:51:51 AM5/22/08

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I'm floored! No PSR? How can that be? Will there be a SaveAs feature
that retains selection criteria? Will I be able to save as "something",
email that file to someone else, and have that other person be able to
re-retrieve that datawindow? This is a Big Deal for me.

Chris Pollach

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May 22, 2008, 12:24:07 PM5/22/08

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Dave;

OUCH ... No PSR - wow, this will be a application migration killer IMHO. I
have seen these used in so many applications - even for blank data entry
forms. I would certainly recommend that Sybase rethink this or even provide
a new equivalent format!

--
Regards ... Chris
http://chrispollach.pbdjmagazine.com

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M. Searer

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May 22, 2008, 12:16:52 PM5/22/08

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no dbase formats?!
no html ?!!
no psr?!

"Dave Fish [TeamSybase]" <n0Spam...@sybase.com> wrote in message
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Terry Dykstra

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May 22, 2008, 1:08:49 PM5/22/08

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I won't miss any of them. I've abandoned PSRs many years ago. I could open
a PSR created in PB7 using PB6 but one created in PB6 would not open in PB8
etc. So many incompatibilities drove me absolutely crazy.
Shouldn't ODF be added as a supported type?

--
Terry Dykstra (TeamSybase)
http://powerbuilder.codeXchange.sybase.com/
http://casexpress.sybase.com/cx/cx.stm
product enhancement requests:
http://my.isug.com/cgi-bin/1/c/submit_enhancement

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Brad Mettee

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May 22, 2008, 7:05:33 PM5/22/08

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And we very frequently use HTML to export data to see what a datastore is
doing internally (before/after manipulating data). It provides a handy way to see
what a grid has in it.

We use PSR's for blank forms and absolutely must be able to change fields in it.

Sybase - why on earth would you get rid of PSR SaveAs?

In article <48359e27$1@forums-1-dub>, cpol...@travel-net.com says...

Clive Collie

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May 23, 2008, 5:51:57 AM5/23/08

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PDF! PDF! Stop the daily "PDF don't work" messages on this forum!

Clive

"Dave Fish [TeamSybase]" <n0Spam...@sybase.com> wrote in message
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May 23, 2008, 12:57:38 PM5/23/08

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There are a number of alternatives to the PSR format. Users can enter
data into a DataWindow and you can save it to a supported format that
also supports importing, like XML.

PSR is not supported because this feature is implemented by using OLE

storage & stream. We don't want to hamstring the WPF implementation by
requiring too much support for legacy technology.

Regards,
Dave Fish
Sybase

PowerBuilder Blog:
http://powerbuilderevangelist.blogspot.com/

On 22 May 2008 09:24:07 -0700, "Chris Pollach"

Dave Fish [TeamSybase]

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May 23, 2008, 1:14:59 PM5/23/08

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Chris you are a good guy, but comments like this are insulting and do
not belong in a professional forum. We do poll real application
developers and I posted this information well in advance of the
release of version 12.

Based on customer feedback we can adapt and make changes or recommend
workarounds. OLE is not .NET and Microsoft is moving away from it so
sometimes technology gets deprecated.

Regards,
Dave Fish
Sybase

PowerBuilder Blog:
http://powerbuilderevangelist.blogspot.com/

On 23 May 2008 05:02:46 -0700, "Chris Pollach"

Chris Pollach

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May 23, 2008, 1:56:59 PM5/23/08

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Dave;

First I have heard of this ... but I just heard about Jim today - so news
slows down (and so do electrons) as it hits the colder air mass in Canada!

I have a few suggestions:

1) Could ISUG set-up a deprecation POLL for Sybase to get feedback on these
type of things?
2) Would entering a "deprecated" enhancement into the ISUG queue be a good
way to get the word out on these type of things and get comments back very
early in the game.
3) Any other "forum" ideas Sybase could do to get feedback. The problem with
the news groups is it is too public and you may not want to publish these
type of things here early in the SDLC.

Sorry .. I did not want to offend. I do like the newer SaveAs options
though.

--
Regards ... Chris
http://chrispollach.pbdjmagazine.com

"Dave Fish [TeamSybase]" <n0Spam...@sybase.com> wrote in message

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Chris Pollach

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May 23, 2008, 2:01:01 PM5/23/08

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Dave;

Suggestion ... Can Sybase keep in mind that this new mechanism should
also work in a Webform (IIs) and within EAServer as well? I would also
really like to have a CreatePDF ( ) method that returns the PDF result to a
variable (especially for the application server side of life).

Have a great holiday weekend!

--
Regards ... Chris
http://chrispollach.pbdjmagazine.com

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Jason 'Bug' Fenter [TeamSybase]

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May 23, 2008, 2:12:18 PM5/23/08

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Can I send the PDF to a customer and have the customer re-retrieve the
query? No... no, that won't work.

wong KS

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May 24, 2008, 1:49:38 AM5/24/08

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we have used the DBF3 format to export and import to the datawindow,
because the file size is small and compact, if it's unsupport in pb12,
any suggestion to replace that function ?

I wonder why sybase don't add new function to the existing functions
(dbf2, dbf3, dif, etc) , I think a lot of developers surely had code
their application using those functions, if omitted, there will be added
cost to fix existing application while upgrade to new pb12.

Dave Fish [TeamSybase]

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May 24, 2008, 8:20:39 AM5/24/08

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You can import XML, tab delimited or CSV files into the DataWindow.

Migrating applications to the new WPF target in version 12 is not
going to be straightforward. WPF is a completely different world from
Win32 and there will be numerous unsupported features and most
applications will require a fair amount of refactoring to work as WPF
applications.

We will have more information about that at TechWave and in the coming
months. Of course you won't be required to migrate your applications
to the WPF target. We will continue to support Win32 applications for
quite some time. None of these changes I've mentioned in this thread
will affect your Win32 applications in PowerBuilder 12. It only
applies if you want to convert your application to use WPF.

Regards,
Dave Fish
Sybase

PowerBuilder Blog:
http://powerbuilderevangelist.blogspot.com/